Reading The Night World Series 1
by lira2308
Summary: Our fav characters form the night world series are stuck in a room together to read the night world series. Before Secret Vampire. Time travellers included. My First fan fic. Hope you like it!
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do nnot or will ever own the night world series. They belong to the wonderful L._

A group teenagers were standing in a small shop full of witchlike objects.

"Are you ready?" said a boy with cat like grace to a small elfish girl with copper hair.

"You do know most people in that room will try to kill each other right?" said a girl with yellow hair falling lose around her and soft brown eyes.

The boy sigh, "Yes well, that's why _we're_ going to be there."

"Hurry up! I don't know how long this spell will work." Said a voice from the back room.

"alright, lets go"

2 years earlier...

James Rasmussen and Poppy North were walking home from school on the last day of school when suddenly they were surrounded by a mystical mist that blocked their view.

"Jamie! What's happening?" said Poppy worriedly.

"I don't know, just stick together and don't let go." James replied as his mind whizzed with possibilities.

Poppy on the other hand was thinking how she wish she could not let go of James forever. They arrived in a strange white room with only bean bags on the floor which were already occupied with twenty-two teens aging between 17-18 years old.

Two groups were formed and the tension was clear in the room.

"Where are we?" said Thea Harman, a girl with blond hair and brown eyes.

"Why don't you tell us, _witch_." Said Rashel Jordon, a vampire hunter.

The two groups raised their shackles like a pair of dogs. Jez Redfern and Morgead Blackthorn was ready two rip Rashel's throat out when a lanky boy said only two words, "Sit down"

"Okay take a sit and lets introduce ourselves." Said the boy.

So everyone said their name, some grudgingly, but they gave their names nevertheless.

All right, you probably guess who we are, well, were from the future and were here to read books about us. All of us." Said Ash as he pointed to his accomplices Quin, Morgead, Poppy and Thea.

"Why?" said Ash (past) "why do we have to read about vermin?"

"We just have to okay. Now shut up and read." Said Poppy (future).

"Okay, I'll start first. It's called 'Secret Vampire'." Said Thea (future)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer:I do not own the night world series. It belongs to L..

Okay so I know it's really confusing with two Ash, Morgead, Quin, Thea and Poppy, so, if its written like this: _Ash_ it's the future one. If it's normal than it's the present one. Thanks!

_Thea_ was about to begin when Mary Lynette stopped her. "Aren't you at least going to explain to us what were reading about? You just poof us into this room and expect us to read without a single explanation!" Mary-Lynette said angrily.

"Your right. I'm sorry. _Morgead_, go explain to mare will you." _Ash_ said with a sudden pang in his chest as he looked at Mary Lynette who he had yet to meet in his own _Morgead _explain to everyone in the room ( human's) the rest of them were sitting comfortably and asking a few questions about each other. It was an hour after when they started to read.

"So you're a vampire." Poppy stated blankly. Unsure of what to say next.

"Actually I'm a lamia. I was born a vamp." James said in a deadpan voice. He knew he blew his chances completely now. Rashel was getting a lot of glares from the other vamps and lamia. Mare was trying her best to cope when she felt a reassuring around her. It was Rowan.

"It's a lot to take in." Rowan said. Mare smiled back at her.

"Now can we start? Okay, chapter one." Said _Thea _

"**It was on the first day of summer vacation that Poppy found out she was going**

**to die."**

"Wait what! I'm gonna die!" said Poppy frantically. James looked at his best friend with fearful eyes.

"Of course not._ She's_ here isn't she." Said Ash pointing to _Poppy. _

"Back off Ash" said James menancingly. Ash raised an eyebrow at James. _Thea_, trying to prevent a fight from breaking continued reading.

"**It happened on Monday, the first real day of vacation (the weekend didn't**

**count). Poppy woke up feeling gloriously weightless and thought, No school.**

**Sunlight was streaming in the window, turning the sheer hangings around her bed**

**filmy gold. Poppy pushed them aside and jumped out of bed and winced."**

"**Ouch. That pain in her stomach again.-Sort of a gnawing, as if something were**

**eating its way toward her back. It helped a little if she bent over.**

**No, Poppy thought. I refuse to be sick during summer vacation. I refuse. A**

**little power of positive thinking is what's needed here."**

"That has to suck. On the first day of summer holiday's too." Said Mary Lynette while the other's nod sympathetically.

"**Grimly, doubled over-think positive, idiot!"**

"Yes, cause that works all the time." Said Morgead sarcastically while earning glares from everyone in the room except from Ash and Quin.

"**-she made her way down the hall to**

**the turquoise-and gold-tiled bathroom. At first she thought she was going to**

**throw up, but then the pain eased as suddenly as it had come. Poppy straightened**

**and regarded her tousled reflection triumphantly."**

**"Stick with me, kid, and you'll be fine," she whispered to it, and gave a**

**conspiratorial wink. Then she leaned forward, seeing her own green eyes narrow**

**in suspicion. There on her nose were four freckles. Four and a half, if she were**

**completely honest, which Poppy North usually was. How childish, how-cute! Poppy**

**stuck her tongue out at herself and then turned away with great dignity, without**

**bothering to comb the wild coppery curls that clustered over her head."**

"You know, you're very pretty. I don't see why you don't think you are." Which surprisingly came from Ash. Everyone was looking at him as though he had just grown another head.

" What? I have my moments." he said shrugging.

**She maintained the dignity until she got to the kitchen, where Phillip, her**

**twin brother, was eating Special K. Then she narrowed her eyes again, this time**

**at him. It was bad enough to be small, slight, and curly-haired-to look, in**

**fact, as much like an elf as anything she'd ever seen sitting on a buttercup in**

**a children's picture book-hut to have a twin who was tall, Viking-blond, and**

**classically handsome .. - well, that just showed a certain deliberate malice in**

**the makeup of the universe, didn't it?**

"I know right! I mean I love my brother and all but it sucks when he is way more better looking than you." Said Maggie while Mare nodded in agreement.

**"Hello, Phillip," she said in a voice heavy with menace.**

**Phillip, who was used to his sister's moods, was unimpressed. He lifted his**

**gaze from the comic section of the L.A. Times for a moment. Poppy had to admit**

**that he had nice eyes: questing green eyes with very dark lashes. They were the**

**only thing the twins had in common.**

"They really are. That's how I knew you were twins. Cause of your eyes." Said James with a slight adoring tone which no one but Ash noticed.

**Phillip said flatly, and went back to the comics. Not many kids Poppy knew read**

**the newspaper, but that was Phil all over. Like Poppy, he'd been a junior at El**

**Camino High last year, and unlike Poppy, he'd made straight A's while starring**

**on the football team, the hockey team, and the baseball team. Also serving as**

**class president One of Poppy's greatest joys in life was teasing him. She**

**thought he was too straitlaced.**

"Wow! He sounds amazing" Rashel and Mare said simultaneously before bursting into laughter. _Ash_ and _Quin_ did their best not to glare at their soulmates while their counterparts felt a tight feeling in their stomachs.

**Just now she giggled and shrugged, giving up the menacing look. "Where's Cliff**

**and Mom?" Cliff Hilgard was their stepfather of three years and even**

**straighter-laced than Phil.**

**"Cliff's at work. Mom's getting dressed. You'd better eat something or she'll**

**get on your case."**

**"Yeah, yeah ..." Poppy went on tiptoe to rummage through a cupboard. Finding a**

**box of Frosted Flakes, she thrust a hand in and delicately pulled out one flake.**

**She ate it dry.**

"You only had one flake! Seriously, no wonder you're so small." Morgead said.

"It's barely been a chapter and we've been here for nearly an hour!" Thea said shocking everyone to silence.

**It wasn't all bad being short and elfin. She did a few dance steps to the**

**refrigerator, shaking the cereal box in rhythm.**

**"I'm a ... sex pixie!" she sang, giving it a footstomping rhythm.**

With this sentence everyone started laughing.

**"No, you're not," Phillip said with devastating calm. "And why don't you put**

**some clothes on?"**

"Wow, I was wrong. He sounds boring with a capital B." Rashel said and all the other girls agreed while James muttered something that sounded a lot like 'he's worse'.

**Holding the refrigerator door open, Poppy looked down at herself. She was**

**wearing the oversize T-shirt she'd slept in. It covered ' her like a ,**

**minidress. "This is clothes," she said serenely, taking a Diet Coke from the**

**fridge.**

**There was a knock at the kitchen door. Poppy saw who it was through the screen.**

**"Hi, James! C'mon in."**

**James Rasmussen came in, taking off his wraparound Ray-Bans. Looking at him,**

**Poppy felt a pang-as always. **

The Poppy in the room was blushing furiously at the idea that James might figure out that she had feelings for him while James was trying so hard not to smile.

**It didn't matter that she had seen him every day,**

**practically, for the past ten years. She still felt a quick sharp throb in her**

**chest, somewhere between sweetness and pain, when first confronted with him**

**every morning.**

**It wasn't just his outlaw good looks, which always reminded her vaguely of**

**James Dean. He had silky light brown hair, a subtle, intelligent face, and gray**

**eyes that were alternately intense and cool. He was the handsomest boy at El**

**Camino High, but that wasn't it, that wasn't what Poppy responded to. It was**

**something inside him, something mysterious and compelling and always just out of**

**reach. It made her heart beat fast and her skin tingle.**

"And now I've figured it out." Poppy said quietly ( of course all the night worlders heard)

**Phillip felt differently. As soon as James came in, he stiffened and his face**

**went cold. Electric dislike flashed between the two boys.**

"You know, I never knew why. Why does Philip hate you so much?"

James shrugged.

**Then James smiled faintly, as if Phillip's reaction amused him. "Hi."**

**"Hi," Phil said, not thawing in the least. Poppy had the strong sense that he'd**

**like to bundle her up and rush her out of the room. Phillip always overdid the**

**protective-brother bit when James was around. "So how's Jacklyn and Michaela?"**

**he added nastily.**

**James considered. "Well, I don't really know."**

**"You don't know? Oh, yeah, you always drop your girlfriends just before summer**

**vacation. Leaves you free to maneuver, right?"**

**"Of course," James said blandly. He smiled.**

**Phillip glared at him with unabashed hatred.**

**Poppy, for her part, was seized by joy. Goodbye, Jacklyn; goodbye Michaela.**

**Goodbye to Jacklyn's elegant long legs and Michaela's amazing pneumatic chest.**

The blush crept back at Poppy's neck.

**This was going to be a wonderful summer.**

**Many people thought Poppy and James's relationship platonic. This wasn't true.**

**Poppy had known for years that she was going to marry him. It was one of her two**

**great ambitions, the other being to see the world. She just hadn't gotten around**

**to in forming James yet. Right now he still thought he liked long-legged girls**

**with salon fingernails and Italian pumps.**

Poppy couldn't believe what was being read. She wanted to cry. "Stupid thoughts" she muttered blinking back the tears. No one said anything as so not embarrass her any further,

**"Is that a new CD?" she said, to distract him from his stare out with his**

**future brother-in-law.**

**James hefted it. "It's the new Ethno techno release."**

**Poppy cheered. "More Tuva throat singers-I can't wait. Let's go listen to it.**

**But just then her mother walked in. Poppy's mother was cool, blond,**

**and perfect, like an Alfred Hitchcock heroine. She normally wore an expression**

**of effortless effi ciency. Poppy, heading out of the kitchen, nearly ran into**

**her.**

**"Sorry-morning!"**

**"Hold on a minute," Poppy's mother said, getting hold of Poppy by the back of**

**her T-shirt. "Good morning, Phil; good morning, James," she added. Phil said**

**good morning and James nodded, ironically polite.**

**"Has everybody had breakfast?" Poppy's mother asked, and when the boys said**

**they had, she looked at her daughter. "And what about you?" she asked, gazing**

**into Poppy's face.**

"Sheesh! Doesn't that woman trust me?" Poppy said huffily. James gave her a look that clearly said 'should she trust you'. Poppy did the mature thing and stuck her tongue out at him.

**Poppy rattled the Frosted Flakes box and her mother winced. "Why don't you at**

**least put milk on them?"**

**"Better this way," Poppy said firmly, but when her mother gave her a little**

**push toward the refrigerator, she went and got a quart carton of low fat milk.**

**"What are you planning to do with your first day of freedom?" her mother said,**

**glancing from James to Poppy.**

**"Oh, I don't know." Poppy looked at James. "Listen to some music; maybe go up**

**to the hills? Or drive to the beach?"**

**"Whatever you want," James said. "We've got all summer."**

**The summer stretched out in front of Poppy, hot and golden and resplendent. It**

**smelled like pool chlo rine and sea salt; it felt like warm grass under her**

**back. Three whole months, she thought. That's forever. Three months is forever.**

**It was strange that she was actually thinking this when it happened.**

**"We could check out the new shops at the Village -" was beginning, when**

**suddenly the pain struck and her breath caught in her throat.**

**It was bad-a deep, twisting burst of agony that made her double over. The milk**

**carton flew from her fingers and everything went gray.**

"What's wrong? Are you Sick?" Gillian asked. Afterwords she looked shocked that she had said anything. 'And in front of David too.'

"I don't know. But it might explain why the first sentence said I was going to die." Poppy said.

"All right, who wants to read?" _Ash _asked the occupants of the room. No one volunteered until Jez grudgingly said she would.

"What! Jez! No! Don't go to the dark side by reading!" Morgead said dramatically. Everyone laughed while _Morgead _looked positively livid and his counterparts behaviour.

"And you wonder why it took so long for Jez to get together with you." _Ash_ said so quietly only _Morgead_ heard.

"Yeah at least I have one." _Morgead _said with s smirk.

"Alright. Chapter 2."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Anything in bold belongs to L.. Unless you think she's a 13 year old kid who still has baby teeth.

Jez picked up the book and began reading.

"**Poppy!" Poppy could hear her mother's voice, but she couldn't see anything. The**

**kitchen floor was obscured by dancing black dots.**

"Are you all right?" James asked Poppy worriedly.

" You do know I can't really answer that right?" Poppy told him with quizzical eyes.

"Oh, right." James said sheepishly.

**"Poppy, are you all right?" **

" Everyone in the room laughed ( Ash and Quin excluded.)

**Now Poppy felt her mother's hands grasping her**

**upper arms, holding her anxiously. The pain was easing and her vision was coming**

**back.**

"That's good." Keller said. Keller thought the whole thing was stupid but Rashel the cat had intrigued her. And Galen. 'He's so sweet' she thought absently.

**As she straightened up, she saw James in front of her. His face was almost**

**expressionless, but Poppy knew him well enough to recognize the worry in his**

**eyes. He was holding the milk carton, she realized. He must have caught it on**

**the fly as she dropped it-amazing reflexes, Poppy thought vaguely. Really**

**amazing.**

"You're not doing a very good job hiding your secret you know." Keller and Rashel said together. They looked at each other in shocked.

**Phillip was on his feet. "Are you okay? What happened?"**

"Your brother really loves you doesn't he." Rowan stated while looking at Ash sadly and he had the sense to look away.

"Yes, he does." Poppy said while blinking back the tears that were about to spill down her cheeks. Philip would be devastated if she died.

**"I-don't know." Poppy looked around, then shrugged, embarrassed. Now that she**

**felt better she wished they weren't all staring at her so hard. The way to deal**

**with the pain was to ignore it, to not think about it.**

"That never works." Ash said spitefully. James got up, ready to punch the pulp out of him when _Ash_ hit Ash ( wow, that's confusing) so roughly that Ash actually fell down. Ash looked up in shock.

"Shut up and read."Ash said venomously.

**"It's just this stupid pain-I think it's gas trowhatchmacall it. You know,**

**something I ate."**

"I doubt that. Even if you ate something bad, you wouldn't get that reaction." Eric said. He was still confuse about the whole think but something about Thea (both of them) had made him stay. Hmmmm.

**Poppy's mother gave her daughter the barest fraction of a shake. "Poppy, this**

**is not gastroenteritis. You were having some pain before-nearly a month ago,**

**wasn't it? Is this the same kind of pain?"**

Poppy squirmed uncomfortably as she thought about the sleepless nights she had the past few days.

**Poppy squirmed uncomfortably. As a matter of fact, the pain had never really**

**gone away. Somehow, in the excitement of end-of-the-year activities, she'd**

**managed to disregard it, and by now she was used to working around it.**

**"Sort of," she temporized. "But-"**

**That was enough for Poppy's mother. She gave Poppy a little squeeze and headed**

**for the kitchen telephone. "I know you don't like doctors, but I'm calling Dr.**

**Franklin. I want him to take a look at you. This isn't something we can ignore."**

"Arghh, but it's vacation." Poppy whined. James gave her a reassuring hug that made both of them blush while the others chuckled at their reaction.

**"Oh, Mom, it's vacation..."**

**Her mother covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "Poppy, this is nonnegotiable.**

**Go get dressed."**

**Poppy groaned, but she could see it was no use. She beckoned to James, who was**

**looking thoughtfully into a middle distance.**

"What were you thinking?" Poppy asked James. James gave her a look.

"Right, it hasn't happen."

"Can we please continue now?" Jez asked annoyed by the interruption.

**"Let's at least listen to the CD before I have to go."**

**He glanced at the CD as if he'd forgotten it, and put down the milk carton.**

**Phillip followed them into the hallway.**

**"Hey, buddy, you wait out here while she gets dressed."**

"And enters the overprotective brother." Maggie said with a whoop Poppy and Mare chuckled at the statement.

**James barely turned. "Get a life, Phil," he said almost absently.**

**"Just keep your hands off my sister, you deve."**

**Poppy just shook her head as she went into her room. As if James cared about**

**seeing her undressed. **

"Unbelievable." Poppy said putting her head in her hands.

**If only, she thought grimly, pulling a pair of shorts out of a drawer. She**

**stepped into them, still shaking her head. James was her best friend, her very**

**best friend, and she was his. But he'd never shown even the slightest desire to**

**get his hands on her. Sometimes she wondered if he realized she was a girl.**

**Someday I'm going to make him see, she thought, and shouted out the door for**

**him.**

"Actually, I do know you're a girl." James said absently.

**James came in and smiled at her. It was a smile other people rarely saw, not a**

**taunting or ironic grin, but a nice little smile, slightly crooked.**

**"Sorry about the doctor thing," Poppy said.**

"Don't be. You have to go," James told Poppy.

"Talking to a book cousin." Ash smirked at James.

**"No. You should go." James gave her a keen glance.**

"We heard you the first time James." Mare and Ash said together before glaring at each other. James and Morgead smirked at them while Quin couldn't believe that Ash had just agreed to a vermin.

**"Your mom's right, you know.**

**This has been going on way too long. You've lost weight; it's keeping you up at**

**night-"**

**Poppy looked at him, startled. She hadn't told anybody about how the pain was**

**worse at night, not even James. But sometimes James just knew things. As if he**

**could read her mind.**

"That's because I can." James told Poppy gently. Poppy looked at James in horror before turning to the others and asked, "Can you all read our minds?"

"Yes" all the vampires and lamia's said.

"I can do it better than the others." Ash (both of them) piped in.

This caused horror faces from the non-night worlders.

**"I just know you, that's all," he said, and then gave her a mischievous**

**sideways glance as she stared at him. He unwrapped the CD.**

**Poppy shrugged and flopped on her bed, staring at the ceiling. "Anyway, I wish**

**Mom would let me have one day of vacation," she said. She craned her neck to**

**look at James speculatively. "I wish I had a mom like yours. Mine's always**

**worrying and trying to fix me."**

**"And mine doesn't really care if I come or go. So which is worse?" James said**

**wryly.**

"Mine." Rowan, Ash, Quin, _Ash_ and _Quin_ said. "He's just plain darn evil."

**"Your parents let you have your own apartment. "**

**"In a building they own. Because it's cheaper than hiring a manager." James**

**shook his head, his eyes on the CD he was putting in the player. "Don't knock**

**your parents, kid. You're luckier than you know."**

"Yes you are. My parents are dead." Jez said in a deadpan tone. Poppy thought about what they said and tears came to her eyes. If she died, her parents would be devastated.

**Poppy thought about that as the CD started. She and James both liked trance-the**

**underground electronic sound that had come from Europe. James liked the techno**

**beat. Poppy loved it because it was real music, raw and unpasteurized, made by**

**people who believed in it. People who had the passion, not people who had the**

**money.**

**Besides, world music made her feel a part of other places. She loved the**

**differentness of it, the alienness.**

"That's because it's weird." Rashel and Quin said together. But unlike Ash and Mare, they both started chuckling.

**Come to think of it, maybe that was what she liked about James, too. His**

**differentness. **

"And I always thought it was because I was such good company."James said teasingly.

**She tilted her head to look at him as the strange rhythms of Burundi drumming filled the air.**

**She knew James better than anyone, but there was always something, something**

**about him that was closed off to her. Something about him that nobody could**

**reach.**

**Other people took it for arrogance, or coldness, or aloofness, but it wasn't**

**really any of those things. It was just differentness. He was more different**

**than any of the exchange students at school. Time after time, Poppy felt she had**

**almost put her finger on the difference, but it always slipped away. And more**

**than once, especially late at night when they were listening to music or**

**watching the ocean, she'd felt he was about to tell her.**

"That's because I was going to. But never got around because of the laws." James told Poppy. Poppy beamed.

**And she'd always felt that if he did tell her, it would be something important,**

**something as shocking and lovely as having a stray cat speak to her.**

Everyone laughed. "You have really weird thoughts you know." Morgead said laughing the loudest.

**Just now she looked at James, at his dean, carven profile and at the brown**

**waves of hair on his fore head, and thought, He looks sad.**

**"Jamie, nothing's wrong, is it? I mean, at home, or anything?" She was the only**

**person on the planet allowed to call him Jamie. Not even Jacklyn or Michaela**

**had ever tried that.**

"Awwww" all the girls said while the boys snickered.

"Gee, I didn't know you liked being called Jamie. Can I call you Jamie." Ash said in a sickly sweet voice. James blushed a deep colour of red.

**"What could be wrong at home?" he said, with a smile that didn't reach his**

**eyes. Then he shook his head dismissively. **

**"Don't worry about it, Poppy. It's nothing important-just a relative threatening to visit. An unwanted relative."**

"Who?" Poppy asked curiously.

"Me." Ash replied simply. "I didn't know I was an unwated visitor. Aunt Maddie didn't say so." Ash retorted smoothly at James who turned a darker shade of red.

**Then the smile did reach his eyes, glinting there. "Or maybe I'm just worried**

**about you," he said.**

**Poppy started to say, "Oh, as if, " but instead she found herself saying,**

**oddly, "Are you really?"**

"Of course I would be worried about you."James said.

"You seem to be repeating yourself James." Jez said after reading ahead.

**Her seriousness seemed to strike some chord. His smile disappeared, and Poppy**

**found that they were simply looking at each other without any insulating humor**

**between them. Just gazing into each other's eyes.**

"This totally a kiss moment" Maggie said.

**James looked uncertain, almost**

**vulnerable.**

**"Poppy"**

**Poppy swallowed. "Yes?"**

**He opened his mouth-and then he got up abruptly and went to adjust her 170-watt**

**Tall-boy speakers. When he turned back, his gray eyes were dark and fathomless.**

**"Sure, if you were really sick, I'd be worried," he said lightly. "That's what**

**friends are for, right?"**

"And you ruined it by saying the whole just friends thing. Nice job James." This surprisingly came from Keller.

**Poppy deflated. "Right," she said wistfully, and then gave him a determined**

**smile.**

**"But you're not sick," he said. "It's just something you need to get taken care**

**of. The doctor'll probably give you some antibiotics or something-with a big**

**needle," he added wickedly.**

"You're so mean!" Poppy whined sadly at the thought of needles.

**"Oh, shut up," Poppy said. He knew she was terrified of injections. Just the**

**thought of a needle entering her skin ...**

The Poppy in the room shivered.

**"Here comes your mom," James said, glancing at the door, which was ajar. **

All the night worlders shook their heads.

"It's stupid things like this that gives us away." Keller said while Ash, Quin, Jez and Morgead muttered, " Idiot."

**Poppy didn't see how he could hear anybody coming-the music was loud and the hallway**

**was carpeted. But an instant later her mother pushed the door open.**

**"All right, sweetheart," she said briskly. "Dr. Franklin says come right in.**

**I'm sorry, James, but I'm going to have to take Poppy away."**

Poppy gulped.

**"That's okay. I can come back this afternoon."**

**Poppy knew when she was defeated. She allowed her mother to tow her to the**

**garage, ignoring James's miming of someone receiving a large injection.**

"Big meanie." Poppy muttered. Everyone laughed.

**An hour later she was lying on Dr. Franklin's examining table, eyes politely**

**averted as his gentle fingers probed her abdomen. Dr. Franklin was tall, lean,**

**and graying, with the air of a country doctor. Somebody you could trust**

**absolutely.**

**"The pain is here?" he said.**

**"Yeah-but it sort of goes into my back. Or maybe I just pulled a muscle back**

**there or something**

**The gentle, probing fingers moved, then stopped. Dr. Franklin's face changed.**

**And somehow, in that moment, Poppy knew it wasn't a pulled muscle. It wasn't an**

**upset stomach; it wasn't anything simple; and things were about to change**

**forever.**

**All Dr. Franklin said was, "You know, I'd like to arrange for a test on this."**

**His voice was dry and thoughtful, but panic curled through Poppy anyway. **

**She couldn't explain what was happening inside her-some sort of dreadful premonition, like a black pit opening in the ground in front of her.**

"Why?" Poppy asked.

**"Why?" her mother was asking the doctor.**

Poppy blinked.

"Huh, guess you're more like your mom than you knew." James said.

**"Well." Dr. Franklin smiled and pushed his glasses up. He tapped two fingers on**

**the examining table. **

Everyone tensed (Ash and Quin excluded).

**"Just as part of a process of elimination, really. Poppy**

**says she's been having pain in the upper abdomen, pain that radiates to her**

**back, pain that's worse at night. She's lost her appetite recently, and she's**

**lost weight. And her gallbladder is palpable-that means I can feel that it's**

**enlarged. Now, those are symptoms of a lot of things, and a sonogram will help**

**rule out some of them."**

Everyone visibly calmed except James who was still having a bad feeling about all of this.

**Poppy calmed down. She couldn't remember what a gallbladder did but she was**

**pretty sure she didn't need it. Anything involving an organ with such a silly**

**name couldn't be serious. Dr. Franklin was going on, talking about the pancreas**

**and pancreatitis and palpable livers, and Poppy's mother was nodding as if she**

**understood. **

**Poppy didn't understand, but the panic was gone. It was as if a**

**cover had been whisked neatly over the black pit, leaving no sign that it had**

**ever been there.**

**"You can get the sonogram done at Children's Hospital across the street," Dr.**

**Franklin was saying. "Come back here after it's finished."**

**Poppy's mother was nodding, calm, serious, and efficient. Like Phil. Or Cliff.**

**Okay, we'll get this taken care of.**

**Poppy felt just slightly important. Nobody she knew had been to a hospital for**

**tests.**

**Her mother ruffled her hair as they walked out of Dr. Franklin's office. "Well,**

**Poppet. What have you done to yourself now?"**

**Poppy smiled impishly. She was fully recovered from her earlier worry. "Maybe**

**I'll have to have an operation and I'll have an interesting scar," she said, to**

**amuse her mother.**

James grimaced. He didn't like the idea of his Poppy getting an operation.

**"Let's hope not," her mother said, unamused.**

**The Suzanne G. Monteforte Children's Hospital was a handsome gray building with**

**sinuous curves and giant picture windows. Poppy looked thought fully into the**

**gift shop as they passed. It was clearly a kid's gift shop, full of rainbow**

**Slinkys and stuffed animals that a visiting adult could buy as a last-minute**

**present.**

**A girl came out of the shop. She was a little older than Poppy, maybe seventeen**

**or eighteen. She was pretty, with an expertly made-up face-and a cute bandanna**

**which didn't quite conceal the fact that she had no hair. She looked happy,**

**round-cheeked, with earrings dangling jauntily beneath the bandanna-but Poppy**

**felt a stab of sympathy.**

So did everyone in the room, Poppy gulped in fear. She was really sick if she had to go to that hospital.

**Sympathy ... and fear. That girl was really sick. Which was what hospitals were**

**for, of course-for really sick people. Suddenly Poppy wanted to get her own**

**tests over with and get out of here.**

**The sonogram wasn't painful, but it was vaguely disturbing. A technician**

**smeared some kind of jelly over Poppy's middle, then ran a cold scanner over it,**

**shooting sound waves into her, taking pictures of her insides. Poppy found her**

**mind returning to the pretty girl with no hair.**

"Don't. Stop thinking about her. It's probably nothing." James said. The tension obvious in his voice.

**To distract herself, she thought about James. And for some reason what came to**

**mind was the first time she'd seen James, the day he came to kindergarten. He'd**

**been a pale, slight boy with big gray eyes and something subtly weird about him**

**that made the bigger boys start picking on him immediately. On the playground**

**they ganged up on him like hounds around a fox-until Poppy saw what was**

**happening.**

**Even at five she'd had a great right hook. She'd burst into the group, slapping**

**faces and kicking shins until the big boys went running. Then she'd turned to**

**James.**

"**Wanna be friends?"**

Everyone laughed.

"You're a tough gal aren't you." Morgead said. Rashel couldn't believe that the tiny girl who was close by actually stood up against a bunch of big boys.

"Yup, I'm tough and totally straight to the point." Poppy said grinning.

**After a brief hesitation he'd nodded shyly. There had been something oddly**

**sweet in his smile.**

**But Poppy had soon found that her new friend was strange in small ways. When**

**the class lizard died, he'd picked up the corpse without revulsion and asked**

**Poppy if she wanted to hold it. The teacher had been horrified.**

So were most of the girls and guys in the room.

**He knew where to find dead animals, too-he'd shown her a vacant lot where**

**several rabbit carcasses lay in the tall brown grass. He was matter-of-fact**

**about it.**

**When he got older, the big kids stopped picking on him. He grew up to be as**

**tall as any of them, and surprisingly strong and quick-and he developed a**

**reputation for being tough and dangerous. When he got angry, something almost**

**frightening shone in his gray eyes.**

**He never got angry with Poppy, though. **

"Of course he wasn't" Ash said smirking at James. James looked blankly ahead and ignored him.

**They'd remained best friends all these**

**years. When they'd reached junior high, he'd started having girlfriends all the**

**girls at school wanted him but he never kept any of them long. And he never**

**confided in them; to them he was a mysterious, secretive bad boy. Only Poppy saw**

**the other side of him, the vulnerable, caring side.**

**"Okay," the technician said, bringing Poppy back to the present with a jerk.**

**"You're done; let's wipe this jelly off you."**

**"So what did it show?" Poppy asked, glancing up at the monitor.**

**"Oh, your own doctor will tell you that. The radiologist will read the results**

**and call them over to your doctor's office." The technician's voice was absolutely neutral-so neutral that Poppy looked at her sharply.**

"That means it's bad." Quin said bluntly and got a smack in the head by Rashel.

"Idiot, be a little sensitive will you." She said, shocked at what she had just done.

**Back in Dr. Franklin's office, Poppy fidgeted while her mother paged through**

**out-of-date magazines.**

**When the nurse said "Mrs. Hilgard," they both stood up.**

**"Uh-no," the nurse said, looking flustered. **

**"Mrs. Hilgard, the doctor just**

**wants to see you for a minute-alone."**

Everyone tensed again. James took Poppy's hand.

**Poppy and her mother looked at each other. Then, slowly, Poppy's mother put**

**down her People magazine and followed the nurse.**

**Poppy stared after her.**

**Now, what on earth . . . Dr. Franklin had never done that before.**

**Poppy realized that her heart was beating hard. Not fast, just hard. Bang ...**

**bang ... bang, in the middle of her chest, shaking her insides. Making her feel**

**unreal and giddy.**

"Stop thinking about it and just read a magazine." Ash said calmly. Everyone stared at him. "It's what calms me down." He said shrugging.

**Don't think about it. It's probably nothing. Read a magazine.**

"See, it helps calm people and keep their minds off of things." Ash said.

**But her fingers didn't seem to work properly. When she finally got the magazine**

**open, her eyes ran over the words without delivering them to her brain.**

**What are they talking about in there? What's going on? It's been so long...**

**It kept getting longer. **

**As Poppy waited, she found herself vacillating between**

**two modes of thought. 1) Nothing serious was wrong with her and her mother was**

**going to come out and laugh at her for even imagining there was, and **

**2)Something awful was wrong with her and she was going to have to go through some**

**dreadful treatment to get well. **

"I like the first thought better." Poppy piped in.

"I think everyone likes the first one better." Mare said laughing.

**The covered pit and the open pit. When the pit**

**was covered, it seemed laughable, and she felt embarrassed for having such**

**melodramatic thoughts. But when it was open, she felt as if all her life before**

**this had been a dream, and now she was hitting hard reality at last.**

"Call me." James said. Poppy was thinking about it too. She'll probably want to tell him what was going on.

**I wish I could call James, she thought.**

**At last the nurse said, "Poppy? Come on in."**

**Dr. Franklin's office was wood-panelled, with certificates and diplomas hanging**

**on the walls. Poppy sat down in a leather chair and tried not to be too obvious**

**about scanning her mother's face.**

**Her mother looked ... too calm. Calm with strain underneath. She was smiling,**

**but it was an odd, slightly unsteady smile.**

"Not good signs." Rashel said.

"Oh God, it's really bad." Poppy said.

**Oh, God, Poppy thought. Something is going on.**

**"Now, there's no cause for alarm," the doctor said, **

"Wow, he's really dumb isn't he? I mean honestly, that's like asking a five-year-old not to eat a cookie." Quin said trying to break the tension in the room, which it did.

**and immediately Poppy**

**became more alarmed. Her palms stuck to the leather of the chair arms.**

**"Something showed up in your sonogram that's a little unusual, and I'd like to**

**do a couple of other tests," Dr. Franklin said, his voice slow and measured,**

**soothing. **

**"One of the tests requires that you fast from midnight the day before**

**you take it. But your mom says you didn't eat breakfast today."**

**Poppy said mechanically, **

**"I ate one Frosted Flake."**

"That'll count as fasting" Thea said grinning at Poppy.

**"One Frosted Flake? Well, I think we can count that as fasting. We'll do the**

**tests today, and I think it's best to admit you to the hospital for them. Now,**

**the tests are called a CAT scan and an ERCP-that's short for something even I**

**can't pronounce." He smiled. Poppy just stared at him.**

Everyone was staring at the book.

"He's not very good at comforting is he?" Eric asked bluntly.

"Nope." Poppy said smiling at Eric.

"Guy's, I would like to finish this chapter sometime this month please." Jez said irately Everyone grinned at her and let her continue.

**"There's nothing frightening about either of these tests," he said gently. "The**

**CAT scan is like an X ray. The ERCP involves passing a tube down the throat,**

**through the stomach, and into the pancreas. Then we inject into the tube a**

**liquid that will show up on X rays ."**

**His mouth kept moving, but Poppy had stopped hearing the words. She was more**

**frightened than she could remember being in a long time.**

The Poppy in the room also looked frightened.

**I was just joking about the interesting scar, she thought. I don't want a real**

**disease. I don't want to go to the hospital, and I don't want any tubes down my**

**throat.**

**She looked at her mother in mute appeal. Her mother took her hand.**

**"It's no big deal, sweetheart. We'll just go home and pack a few things for**

**you; then we'll come back."**

"I have to go right away! I can't even enjoy one summer day." Poppy said sadly.

**"I have to go into the hospital today?"**

"Looks like the book you agrees with you." Maggie said laughingly.

**"I think that would be best," Dr. Franklin said.**

**Poppy's hand tightened on her mother's. Her mind was a humming blank.**

**When they left the office, her mother said, "Thank you, Owen."**

"Wow, I didn't know that was 's first name." Poppy said absently.

**Poppy had never**

**heard her call Dr. Franklin by his first name before.**

**Poppy didn't ask why. She didn't say anything as they walked out of the**

**building and got in the car. As they drove home, her mother began to chat about**

**ordinary things in a light, calm voice, and Poppy made herself answer.**

**Pretending that everything was normal, while all the time the terrible sick**

**feeling raged inside her.**

Everyone looked pityingly at Poppy (Ash and Quin again excluded.)

**It was only when they were in her bedroom, packing mystery books and cotton**

**pajamas into a small suitcase, that she asked almost casually, "So what exactly**

**does he think is wrong with me?"**

**Her mother didn't answer immediately. She was looking down at the suitcase.**

**Finally she said, "Well, he's not sure anything is wrong."**

"He's a doctor! He should know what's wrong." Thea said angrily. Furious that a certified doctor couldn't even tell a patient what she's got.

**"But what does he think? He must think something. And he was talking about my**

**pancreas-I mean, it sounds like he thinks there's something wrong with my**

**pancreas. I thought he was looking at my gallbladder or whatever. I didn't even**

**know that my pancreas was involved in this..."**

**"Sweetheart." Her mother took her by the shoulders, and Poppy realized she was**

**getting a little over wrought. She took a deep breath.**

**"I just want to know the truth, okay? I just want to have some idea of what's**

**going on. It's my body, and I've got a right to know what they're looking for-don't I?"**

"Exactly! I have every right to know what I've got!" Poppy agreed furiously.

**It was a brave speech, and she didn't mean any of it. What she really wanted**

**was reassurance, a promise that Dr. Franklin was looking for something trivial. That the worst that could happen wouldn't be so bad. She didn't get it.**

**"Yes, you do have a right to know." Her mother let a long breath out, then**

**spoke slowly. "Poppy, Dr. Franklin was concerned about your pancreas all along.**

**Apparently things can happen in the pancreas that cause changes in other organs,**

**like the gallbladder and liver. When Dr. Franklin felt those changes, he**

**decided to check things out with a sonogram."**

**Poppy swallowed. "And he said the sonogram was-unusual. How unusual?"**

Poppy and James tensed. Mare hugged Poppy. Maggie grabbed her hand. Thea, Rowan and Keller came to sit down next to Poppy. Rashelcouldn't help blink back the tears. She was just 17 and she was going to die.

**"Poppy, this is all preliminary..." Her mother saw her face and sighed. She**

**went on reluctantly. "The sonogram showed that there might be something in your**

**pancreas. Something that shouldn't be there. That's why Dr. Franklin wants the**

**other tests; they'll tell us for sure. But-"**

**"Something that shouldn't be there? You mean ... like a tumor? Like ...**

**cancer?" Strange, it was hard to say the words.**

**Her mother nodded once. "Yes. Like cancer."**

"No." Poppy whispered. "I have cancer." Tears were running freely down her cheeks. James eyes were hard as rock. 'No, not Poppy.' He had refrained himself from telling her about the night world so she wouldn't die. But now, she's dead either way.

The girls were all crying. It was an hour later before they started reading again.

"I'll read. Chapter 3." Mare said, sniffing.


	4. Chapter 4

**All Poppy could think of was the pretty bald girl in the gift shop.**

**Cancer.**

"Please stop thinking of that Poppy," James begged her. He hated having to hear her thoughts, so depressed, so un-poppyness.

**"But-but they can do something about it, can't they?" she said, and even to her**

**own ears her voice sounded very young. **

**"I mean-if they had to, they could take**

**my pancreas out..."**

Eric was about to say something when Thea silenced him with a look.

**"Oh, sweetheart, of course. " Poppy's mother took Poppy in her arms. **

"She's just saying that. Honestly, am I the only one who has figured how everything ends?" Ash said in an irritated voice. He hated having to be stuck in this room full of vermin but to have to hear one whine about her death was taking a toll on him.

"Let me guess, your ending has something to do with her dying." James said angrily at Ash. He's cousin was so infuriating at times.

"No you idiot..." Ash stood up, knocking on the chair he was sitting on. He was about to continue when _Quin_ stopped both of them before it got out of hand.

"Ash, don't tell anyone what've you figured out. James, don't cause a fight, it's hard we got it. Just stop, or _Ash_ and I are going to do something very bad." _Quin_ said menacingly. Ash was smirking, he knew he was right. With his awesome telepathic abilities, he had easily gotten the story from _Thea_. Oh, he couldn't wait to taunt James when it was all over.

**"I promise you; if there's something wrong, we'll do anything and everything to fix it.**

**I'd go to the ends of the earth to make you well. You know that. And at this**

**point we aren't even sure that there is something wrong. Dr. Franklin said that**

**it's extremely rare for teenagers to get a tumor in the pancreas. Extremely**

**rare. So let's not worry about things until we have to."**

**Poppy felt herself relax; the pit was covered again. But somewhere near her**

**core she still felt cold.**

**"I have to call James."**

**Her mother nodded. "Just make it quick."**

**Poppy kept her fingers crossed as she dialled James's apartment. Please be**

**there, please be there, she thought. And for once, he was. **

**Poppy and James visibly relaxed. **

"Thank god you're there."

"I know"

**He answered laconically, but as soon as he heard her voice, he said, "What's wrong?"**

**"Nothing-well, everything. Maybe." Poppy heard herself give a wild sort of**

**laugh. It wasn't exactly a laugh.**

"I'll be really worried now." James said frowning.

**"What happened?" James said sharply. "Did you have a fight with Cliff?"**

Everyone laughed, even though it wasn't funny. Just to relax the atmosphere.

**"No. Cliff's at the office. And I'm going into the hospital."**

**"Why?"**

**"They think I might have cancer."**

**It was a tremendous relief to say it, a sort of emotional release. Poppy laughed again. Silence on the other end of the line.**

**"Hello?"**

"Jamie..." Poppy said soothingly. She never knew he cared so much.

**"I'm here," James said. Then he said, "I'm coming over."**

**"No, there's no point. I've got to leave in a minute." She waited for him to**

**say that he'd come and see her in the hospital, but he didn't.**

**"James, would you do something for me? Would you find out whatever you can**

**about cancer in the pancreas? Just in case."**

"You could of word it better, knowing my cousin here, he woud probably think the worst." Jez said to Poppy. Poppy blinked, "You're related?"

"Yes, most of us here are. Obviously the Redfern family is cursed." James said before sighing dramatically.

**"Is that what they think you have?"**

**"They don't know for sure. They're giving me some tests. I just hope they don't**

**have to use any needles." Another laugh, but inside she was reeling.**

"Again, don't think about it." Ash said absent mindedly, he was slightly distracted by the reader to actually catch most of the story. He wasn't aware that his future self was smirking at him.

**She wished James would say something comforting. "I'll see what I can find on**

**the Net." His voice was unemotional, almost expressionless.**

"See, he thinks it's really bad. Now he's going to over react and go around town finding a way to cure you." Jez said sympathetically at Poppy. Poppy didn't know whether to be pleased or embarrass by how James was acting.

**"And then you can tell me later-they'll probably let you call me at the**

**hospital."**

**"Yeah."**

**"Okay, I have to go. My mom's waiting " **

**"Take care of yourself."**

**Poppy hung up, feeling empty. Her mother was standing in the doorway. "Come on,**

**Poppet. Let's go."**

**James sat very still, looking at the phone without seeing it. She was scared, and he couldn't help her. He'd never been very good at inspirational small talk. It wasn't, he thought grimly, in his nature.**

"Awesome! James view," Ash whooped. He was listening to his cousin's thoughts. Oh how he was glad he was here. If only he knew that the next story was going to be about him.

**To give comfort you had to have a comfortable view of the world. And James had**

**seen too much of the world to have any illusions.**

**He could deal with cold facts, though. Pushing aside a pile of assorted**

**clutter, he turned on his lap top and dialled up the Internet.**

**Within minutes he was using Gopher to search the National Cancer Institute's**

**Cancer Net. The first file he found was listed as "Pancreatic cancer-Patient." He**

**scanned it. Stuff about what the pancreas did, stages of the disease,**

**treatments. Nothing too gruesome.**

**Then he went into "Pancreatic cancer Physician ^ - -a file meant for doctors.**

**The first line held him paralyzed.**

**Cancer of the exocrine pancreas is rarely curable.**

Everyone tensed ( Ash, Quin, Morgead and Jez not included.)

James could barely breathe. His heart was beating so heart it was a wonder that no one could hear it. Poppy felt suffocated, as if her organs weren't functioning properly. 'that's because they aren't' she thought silently.

**His eyes skimmed down the lines. Overall survival rate ... metastasis ... poor**

**response to chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery ... pain ...**

**Pain. Poppy was brave, but facing constant pain would crush anyone. Especially**

**when the outlook for the future was so bleak.**

Poppy wanted to cry, pain, horrendous pain. To suffer that every day. It was impossible.

**He looked at the top of the article again. Overall survival rate less than**

**three percent. If the cancer had spread, less than one percent.**

**There must be more information. James went searching again and came up with**

**several articles from newspapers and medical journals. They were even worse than**

**the NCI file.**

**The overwhelming majority of patients will die, and die swiftly, experts**

**say... Pancreatic cancer is usually inoperable, rapid, and debilitating**

**painful... The average survival if the cancer has spread can be three weeks to**

**three months...**

James face looked stricken. Three weeks to three months, that's all the time he had left with Poppy unless he found a way to cure her. This time Poppy really cried with her buried in James chest. 'So soon, she was going to die so soon.'

**Three weeks to three months.**

**James stared at the laptop's screen. His chest and throat felt tight; his**

**vision was blurry. He tried to control it, telling himself that nothing was**

**certain yet. Poppy was being tested, that didn't mean she had cancer.**

Everyone was looking at James with pity. How hard it must be for him, to have to read about his friend's possible death.

**But the words rang hollow in his mind. He had known for some time that**

**something was wrong with Poppy. Something was-disturbed-inside her. He'd sensed**

**that the rhythms of her body were slightly off; he could tell she was losing**

**sleep. And the pain-he always knew when the pain was there. He just hadn't**

**realized how serious it was.**

**Poppy knows, too, he thought. Deep down, she knows that something very bad is**

**going on, or she wouldn't have asked me to find this out. But what does she**

**expect me to do, walk in and tell her she's going to die in a few months?**

**And am I supposed to stand around and watch it?**

"**No I'm not going to." James said. "I'm not going to let you die Poppy, No way in hell." **

"Of course not. Isn't it obvious?" Ash said tauntingly. Baiting James.

"Well isn't it obvious to you. There has to be a reason why you're here. Why I'm here." _Ash _said to his past self. Mare would hate him again if she sees his past self again. Everyone was silent. Thinking why they were brought here.

"Umm, can I just continue?" Mare asked _Ash_. _Ash _couldn't help but grinned at her. Oh how different her reaction to him now then when they first met.

"Yeah Mare, go ahead." He said back to her softly, saying her name with unmistakable tender. Everyone was staring at him. His past self was confused. Mare was too. This _Ash _was so different. There was something about him, but her curiosity about the story made her continue anyway.

**His lips pulled back from his teeth slightly. Not a nice smile, more of a**

**savage grimace. He'd seen a lot of death in seventeen years. He knew the stages**

**of dying, knew the difference between the moment breathing stopped and the**

**moment the brain turned off; knew the unmistakable ghostlike pallor of a fresh**

**corpse. The way the eyeballs flattened out about five minutes after expiration.**

**Now, that was a detail most people weren't familiar with. Five minutes after you**

**die, your eyes go flat and filmy gray. And then your body starts to shrink. You**

**actually get smaller.**

"And you're already so small." James said sadly.

**Poppy was so small already.**

"So you've said." Maggie said laughing with the others.

**He'd always been afraid of hurting her. She looked so fragile, and he could**

**hurt somebody much stronger if he wasn't careful. That was one reason he kept a**

**certain distance between them.**

**One reason. Not the main one.**

**The other was something he couldn't put into words, not even to himself. It**

**brought him right up to the edge of the forbidden. To face rules that had been**

**ingrained in him since birth.**

**None of the Night People could fall in love with a human. The sentence for**

**breaking the law was death.**

It dawned on Poppy that the reason he didn't make a move on her was because of a stupid rule. Stupid, unreasonable, bloody rule. Ash started laughing. Everyone looked

At him as though he was crazy.

"sorry." Ash said.

**It didn't matter. He knew what he had to do now. Where he had to go.**

**Cold and precise, James logged off the Net. He stood, picked up his sunglasses,**

**slid them into place. Went out into the merciless June sunlight, slamming his**

**apartment door behind him.**

**Poppy looked around the hospital room unhappily. There was nothing so awful**

**about it, except that it was too cold, but ... it was a hospital. That was the**

**truth behind the pretty pink-and-blue curtains and the dosed-circuit TV and the**

**dinner menu decorated with cartoon characters. It was a place you didn't come**

**unless you were Pretty Darn Sick.**

**Oh, come on, she told herself. Cheer up a little. What happened to the power of**

**Poppytive thinking? Where's Poppyanna when you need her? Where's Mary Poppy-ins?**

"God stop, you're making me gag." Morgead said sickly.

**God, I'm even making myself gag, she thought.**

"Wow Morgy, I always knew you were more like a girl than a guy," Jez said teasingly. Morgead gave her a look that said 'drop dead'. Jez hurriedly continued, no one needed an angry Morgead right now.

**But she found herself smiling faintly, with self deprecating humor if nothing**

**else. And the nurses were nice here, and the bed was extremely cool. It had a**

**remote control on the side that bent it into every imaginable position.**

**Her mother came in while she was playing with it.**

**"I got hold of Cliff; he'll be here later. Meanwhile, I think you'd better**

**change so you're ready for the tests."**

**Poppy looked at the blue-and-white striped seer sucker hospital robe and felt a**

**painful spasm that seemed to reach from her stomach to her back. And something**

**in the deepest part of her said Please, not yet. I'll never be ready.**

**James pulled his Integra into a parking space on Ferry Street near Stoneham. It**

**wasn't a nice part of town. Tourists visiting Los Angeles avoided this area.**

**The building was sagging and decrepit. Several stores were vacant, with**

**cardboard taped over broken windows. Graffiti covered the peeling paint on the**

**cinder-block walls.**

"What are you doing there," Ash said snapping.

"Don't worry, I won't ruin your rep." James said irritated that his cousin cared more of his reputation at a club then his family.

"No you idiot, that place is bad, even for iris standard." Ash said equally annoyed.

"Guy's!"_ Quin_ shouted.

**Even the smog seemed to hang thicker here. The air itself seemed yellow and**

**cloying. Like a poisonous miasma, it darkened the brightest day and made**

**everything look unreal and ominous.**

**James walked around to the back of the building. There, among the freight**

**entrances of the stores in front, was one door unmarked by graffiti. The sign**

**above it had no words. Just a picture of a black flower.**

**A black iris.**

**James knocked. The door opened two inches, and a skinny kid in a wrinkled**

**T-shirt peered out with beady eyes.**

**"It's me, Ulf," James said, resisting the temptation to kick the door in.**

**Werewolves, he thought. Why do they have to be so territorial? The door opened just enough to let James in. The skinny kid glance suspiciously outside before shutting it again.**

"**Go mark a fire hydrant or something" James suggested over his shoulders.**

"Hey! I resent that." Keller exclaimed angrily. She hate when anyone took a go at her.

"Keller, I don't think James meant it." Galen said soothingly at Keller who visibly relaxed.

**The place looked like a small cafe. A darkened room with little round tables crammed in side by side, surrounded by wooden chairs. There were a few scattered people sitting down, all of them looking like teenagers. Two guys were playing pool in the back.**

**James went over to one of the round tables where a girl was sitting. He took off his sunglasses and sat down.**

"**Hi, Gisele."**

Ash snorted, "You're going to ask her for help. Dude, we have witches for cousins. Why not ask one of them. Bet you Thea would." Thea didn't protest, she knew she would of, But James was looking dazed, 'Ash's right, why go to Giséle when he had cousins who would do it without a pause.

**The girl looked up. She had dark hair and blue eyes. Slanted, mysterious eyes which seemed to have been outlined by black eyeliner-ancient Egyptian style. She looked like a witch, which was no coincidence.**

"**James, I missed you." her voice soft and husky. "how's it going these days?" she cupped her hands around the unlit candle on the table and made a quick motion as if releasing a captive bird. As her hands moved away, the candle wick burst into flames.**

"**Still as gorgeous as ever," she said, smiling at him in the dancing golden light.**

Poppy glared at the book. She was dying and her best friend was meeting a girl at a club!

"**That goes for you too. But the truth is, I'm here on business."**

**She arched an eyebrow. "Aren't you always?"**

"What business do you do with her around" Poppy asked James sharply. James cowered under her icy glare.

"**this is different. I want to ask your professional opinion on something."**

**She spread her slender hands, silver fingernails glowing in the candle's flame. On her index finger was a ring with a black dahlia, "My powers are at your disposal. Is there someone you want cursed? Or maybe you want to attract good luck or properity. I know you can't need a love charm."**

"**I want a spell-to cure a disease. I don't know if it needs to be specific to a desease, or if something more general would work. A-health spell..."**

"Wow, you're really losing it, aren't you?" Jez asked James chuckling.

"**James" she chuckled lazily and out a hand on his, stroking lightly. "You're really worked up, aren't you? I've never seen you like this."**

**It was true; he was experiencing a major loss of control. He worked against it, disciplining into perfect stillness. **

"**What particular disease are we talking about?" Gisele asked, when he didn't speak again. **

"**Cancer"**

Ash shooked his head. "You didn't even try to hide it did you." Everyone glared at himand got an equally icy look back.

**Gisele threw back her head and laughed. "You're telling me that your kind can get cancer? I don't believe it. Eat and breathe all you want, but don't try to convince me that the lamia get human diseases."**

**This was the hard part. James said quietly, "The person with the disease isn 't my kind. She's not your kind either. She's human." **

**Gisele's smile disappeared. Her voice was no longer husky or lazy as she said, "An outsider? **_**Vermin**_**? Are you crazy James?" **

Keller, Rashel, Thea, Galen, _Ash, Quin, Morgead, Thea_ and Rowan all growled at the word 'Vermin'.

"**She's doesn't know anything about me or the Night World. I don't want to break any laws. I just want her well."**

**The slanted blue eyes were searching his face. "Are you sure you haven't broken**

**the laws already?" And when James looked determined not to understand this, she**

**added in a lowered voice, "Are you sure you're not in love with her?"**

Poppy held her breath. She felt giddy at the idea of James in love with _her_.

**James made himself meet the probing gaze directly. He spoke softly and**

**dangerously. "Don't say that unless you want a fight."**

"You can't fight a girl!" All the girls in the room exclaimed while James looked at them sheepishly.

**Gisele looked away. She played with her ring. The candle flame dwindled and**

**died.**

**"James, I've known you for a long time," she said without looking up. "I don't**

**want to get you in trouble. I believe you when you say you haven't broken any**

**laws-but I think we'd both better forget this conversation. Just walk out now**

**and I'll pretend it never happened."**

**"And the spell?"**

**"There's no such thing. And if there was, I wouldn't help you. Just go."**

"Told you so..." Ash said in a singing tone.

**James went. There was one other possibility that he could think of. He drove to**

**Brentwood, to an area that was as different from the last as a diamond is from**

**coal. He parked in a covered carport by a quaint adobe building with a fountain.**

**Red and purple bougainvillaea climbed up the walls to the Spanish tile on the**

**roof.**

"You're going to uncle Jasper's place. Wow, you're really desperately aren't you?" Ash said laughing with Quin and Jez.

**Walking through an archway into a courtyard, he came to an office with gold**

**letters on the door. Jasper R. Rasmussen, Ph.D. His father was a psychologist.**

**Before he could reach for the handle, the door opened and a woman came out. She**

**was like most of his father's clients, forty-something, obviously rich, wearing**

**a designer jogging suit and high-heeled sandals.**

**She looked a little dazed and dreamy, and there were two small, rapidly healing**

**puncture wounds on her neck.**

"You're dad bites his customers!" Poppy said shock. Mare's, Maggie's and Gillian eyes were wide as saucers.

**James went into the office. There was a waiting room, but no receptionist.**

**Strains of Mozart came from the inner office. James knocked on the door.**

**"Dad?"**

**The door opened to reveal a handsome man with dark hair. He was wearing a**

**perfectly tailored gray suit and a shirt with French cuffs. He had an aura of**

**power and purpose.**

**But not of warmth. He said, "What is it, James?" in the same voice he used for**

**his clients: thoughtful, deliberate, confident.**

**"Do you have a minute?"**

**His father glanced at his Rolex. "As a matter of fact, my next patient won't be**

**here for half an hour."**

**"There's something I need to talk about."**

**His father looked at him keenly, then gestured to an overstuffed chair. James**

**eased into it, but found himself pulling forward to sit on the edge.**

**"What's on your mind?"**

**James searched for the right words. Everything de pended on whether he could**

**make his father understand. But what were the right words? At last he settled**

**for bluntness.**

**"It's Poppy. She's been sick for a while, and now they think she has cancer."**

**Dr. Rasmussen looked surprised. "I'm sorry to hear that." But there was no**

**sorrow in his voice.**

"You have to sound nonchalant. Act as if you don't care." Quin said helpfully to James.

**"And it's a bad cancer. It's incredibly painful and just about one hundred**

**percent incurable."**

**"That's a pity." Again there was nothing but mild surprise in his father's**

**voice. And suddenly James knew where that came from. It wasn't surprise that**

**Poppy was sick; it was surprise that James had made a trip just to tell him**

**this.**

**"Dad, if she's got this cancer, she's dying. Doesn't that mean anything to**

**you?"**

"Of course not. He's a real night person." Keller said disgustedly.

**Dr. Rasmussen steepled his fingers and stared into the ruddy gloss of his**

**mahogany desk. He spoke slowly and steadily. "James, we've been through this**

**before. You know that your mother and I are worried about you getting too dose**

**to Poppy. Too . . . attached ... to her."**

**James felt a surge of cold rage. "Like I got too attached to Miss Emma?"**

**His father didn't blink. "Something like that."**

James was angry, no furious at his father. To bring that up. After years...

**James fought the pictures that wanted to form in his mind. He couldn't think**

**about Miss Emma now; he needed to be detached. That was the only way to convince**

**his father.**

**"Dad, what I'm trying to say is that I've known Poppy just about all my life.**

**She's useful to me."**

**"How? Not in the obvious way. You've never fed on her, have you?"**

**James swallowed, feeling nauseated. Feed on Poppy? Use her like that? Even the**

**thought of it made him sick.**

Everyone felt sick. To bite your best friend. Ughh.

**"Dad, she's my friend," he said, abandoning any pretense of objectivity. "I**

**can't just watch her suffer. I can't. I have to do something about it."**

**His father's face cleared. "I see."**

**James felt dizzy with astonished relief. "You understand?"**

**"James, at times one can't help a certain feeling of . . . compassion for**

**humans. In general, I wouldn't encourage it-but you have known Poppy a long**

**while. You feel pity for her suffering. If you want to make that suffering**

**shorter, then, yes, I understand."**

**The relief crashed down around James. He stared at his father for a few**

**seconds, then said softly, "Mercy killing? I thought the Elders had put a ban on**

**deaths in this area."**

"He wants me to _kill_ you. He's crazy!"

**"Just be reasonably discreet about it. As long as it seems to be natural, we'll**

**all look the other way. There won't be any reason to call in the Elders."**

**There was a metallic taste in James's mouth. He stood and laughed shortly.**

**"Thanks, Dad. You've really helped a lot."**

**His father didn't seem to hear the sarcasm. "Glad to do it, James. By the way,**

**how are things at the apartments?"**

**"Fine," James said emptily.**

**"And at school?"**

**"School's over, Dad," James said, and let himself out.**

**In the courtyard he leaned against an adobe wall and stared at the splashing**

**water of the fountain.**

**He was out of options. Out of hope. The laws of the Night World said so.**

**If Poppy had the disease, she would die from it.**

"That's it."


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 4**

Morgead grabbed the book and started reading.

**Poppy was staring without appetite at a dinner tray of chicken nuggets and**

**french fries when Dr. Franklin came in the room.**

The humans, Thea, James, Keller, Rowan and Galen all held their breaths.

**The tests were over. The CAT scan had been all right, if claustrophobic, but**

**the ERCP had been awful. Poppy could still feel the ghost of the tube in her**

**throat every time she swallowed.**

"That has to suck. Imagine feeling a tube every time you want to eat or drink. Eurgh." Jez said as she shivered.

**"You're leaving all this great hospital food," Dr. Franklin said with gentle**

**humor. Poppy managed a smile for him.**

**He went on talking about innocuous things. He didn't say anything about the**

**test results, and Poppy had no idea when they were supposed to come in. She was**

**suspicious of Dr. Franklin, though. Something about him, the gentle way he**

**patted her foot under the blanket or the shadows around his eyes ...**

"Oh god." Maggie said. "You've got it." She whispered. Everyone knew it after that give away. Yet, Poppy and James refused to have their bubble hope to pop.

**When he casually suggested that Poppy's mother might want to "come for a little**

**walk down the hall," Poppy's suspicion crystallized.**

**He's going to tell her. He's got the results, but he doesn't want me to know.**

**Her plan was made in the same instant. She yawned and said, "Go on, Mom; I'm a**

**little bit sleepy." Then she lay back and shut her eyes.**

**As soon as they were gone, she got off the bed. She watched their retreating**

**backs as they went down the hall into another doorway. Then, in her stocking**

**feet, she quietly followed them.**

"Liar" Hannah said laughingly. Everyone was shocked. They had forgotten that she was even here.

**She was delayed for several minutes at the nursing station. "Just stretching my**

**legs," she said to a nurse who looked inquiringly at her, and she pretended to**

**be walking at random. When the nurse picked up a clipboard and went into one of**

**the patient's rooms, Poppy hurried on down the corridor.**

**The room at the end was the waiting room-she'd seen it earlier. It had a TV**

**and a complete kitchen setup so relatives could hang out in comfort. The door**

**was ajar and Poppy approached it stealthily. She could hear the low rumble of**

**Dr. Franklin's voice, but she couldn't hear what he was saying.**

**Very cautiously Poppy edged loser. She chanced one look around the door.**

**She saw at once that there was no need for caution. Everyone in that room was**

**completely occupied.**

**Dr. Franklin was sitting on one of the couches. Beside him was an**

**African-American woman with glasses on a chain around her neck. She was wearing**

**the white coat of a doctor.**

**On the other couch was Poppy's stepfather, Cliff. His normally perfect dark**

**hair was slightly mussed, his rock-steady jaw was working. He had his arm around**

**her mother. Dr. Franklin was talking to both of them, his hand on her mother's**

**shoulder.**

**And Poppy's mother was sobbing.**

**Poppy pulled back from the doorway.**

**Oh, my God. I've got it.**

"Hey look Maggie, you're like Poppy." Morgead said jokingly.

**She'd never seen her mother cry before. Not when Poppy's grandmother had died,**

**not during the di vorce from Poppy's father. Her mother's specialty was coping**

**with things; she was the best coper Poppy had ever known.**

**But now ... I've got it. I've definitely got it.**

**Still, maybe it wasn't so bad. Her mom was shocked, okay, that was natural. But**

**it didn't mean that Poppy was going to die or anything. Poppy had all of modem**

**medicine on her side.**

"Actually..." Eric got glares from all the girls in the room.

**She kept telling herself this as she edged away from the waiting room.**

**She didn't edge fast enough, though. Before she got out of earshot, she heard**

**her mother's voice, raised in something like anguish.**

**"My baby. Oh, my little girl."**

Poppy gulped. Her mother, father they were going to be broken. Phil...Oh god, Phil.

**Poppy froze.**

**And then Cliff, loud and angry: "You're trying to tell me there's nothing?"**

**Poppy couldn't feel her own breathing. Against her will, she moved back to the**

**door.**

**"Dr. Loftus is an oncologist; an expert on this sort of cancer. She can explain**

**better than I can," Dr. Franklin was saying.**

**Then a new voice came-the other doctor. At first Poppy could only catch**

**scattered phrases that didn't seem to mean anything: adenocarcinoma, splenic ve**

**nous occlusion, Stage Three. Medical jargon. Then Dr. Loftus said, "To put it**

**simply, the problem is that the tumor has spread. It's spread to the liver and**

**the lymph nodes around the pancreas. That means it's unresectable-we can't**

**operate."**

Poppy's eyes brimmed with tears.

**Cliff said, "But chemotherapy ..."**

**"We might try a combination of radiation and chemotherapy with something**

**called 5-fluorouracil. We've had some results with that. But I won't mislead**

**you. At best it may improve her survival time by a few weeks. At this point,**

**we're looking at palliative measures-ways to reduce her pain and improve the**

**quality of the time she has left. Do you understand?"**

Poppy was sobbing freely along with the human girls. The boys were quiet and still. James pulled Poppy to him and she sobbed against the cool fabric of his shirt.

**Poppy could hear choking sobs from her mother, but she couldn't seem to move.**

**She felt as if she were listening to some play on the radio. As if it had**

**nothing to do with her.**

**Dr. Franklin said, "There are some research proto cols right here in southern**

**California. They're experimenting with immunotherapy and cryogenic surgery.**

**Again, we're talking about palliation rather than a cure-"**

**"Damn it!" Cliff's voice was explosive.**

"No way. Cliff actually sweared. For me." Poppy gave a watery smile.

**"You're **

**talking about a little girl! How did this get to-to Stage Three-without anybody**

**noticing? This kid was dancing all night two days ago."**

"I was. I was so psyched about school nearly over." It felt to Poppy as if that day was a million years ago.

**"Mr. Hilgard, I'm sorry," Dr. Loftus said so softly that Poppy could barely**

**pick up the words. "This kind of cancer is called a silent disease, because**

**there are very few symptoms until it's very far advanced. That's why the**

**survival rate is so low. And I have to tell you that Poppy is only the second**

**teenager I've seen with this kind of tumor. Dr. Franklin made an extremely acute**

**diagnosis when he decided to send her in for testing."**

**"I should have known," Poppy's mother said in a thick voice. "I should have**

**made her come in sooner. I should have-I should have-"**

"It wasn't your fault." Poppy whispered softly.

"Your poor mum. That's...awful." Mare didn't know what to say. How do you comfort someone who's dying?

**There was a banging sound. Poppy looked around the door, forgetting to be**

**inconspicuous. Her mother was hitting the Formica table over and over. Cliff was**

**trying to stop her.**

**Poppy reeled back.**

**Oh, God, I've got to get out of here. I can't see this. I can't look at this.**

**She turned and walked back down the hall. Her legs moved. Just like always.**

**Amazing that they still worked.**

**And everything around her was just like always. The nursing station was still**

**decorated for the Fourth of July. Her suitcase was still on the padded window**

**seat in her room. The hardwood floor was still solid underneath her.**

**Everything was the same-but how could it be?**

**How could the walls be still standing? How could the TV be blaring in the next**

**room?**

**I'm going to die, Poppy thought.**

**Strangely enough, she didn't feel frightened. What she felt was vastly**

**surprised. And the surprise kept coming, over and over, with every thought being**

**in terrupted by those four words.**

**It's my fault because (I'm going to die) I didn't go to the doctor's sooner.**

**Cliff said "damn" for me(I'm going to die). I didn't know he liked me enough to**

**swear.**

"Poppy..." James said as Poppy burst into fresh tears.

**Her mind was racing wildly.**

**Something in me, she thought. I'm going to die because of something that's**

**inside me, like that alien in the movie. It's in me right now. Right now.**

**She put both hands to her stomach, then pulled up her T-shirt to stare at her**

**abdomen. **

**The skin was smooth, unblemished. She didn't feel any pain.**

**But it's in there and I'm going to die because of it. Die soon. I wonder how**

**soon? I didn't hear them talk about that.**

**I need James.**

**Poppy reached for the phone with a feeling that her hand was detached from her**

**body. She dialed, thinking Please be there.**

**But this time it didn't work. The phone rang and rang. When the answering**

**machine came on, Poppy said, "Call me at the hospital." Then she hung up and**

**stared at the plastic pitcher of ice water by her bedside.**

**He'll get in later, she thought. And then he'll call me. I just have to hang on**

**until then.**

James nodded.

**Poppy wasn't sure why she thought this, but suddenly it was her goal. To hang**

**on until she could talk to James. She didn't need to think about anything until**

**then; she just had to survive. Once she talked to James, she could figure out**

**what she was supposed to be feeling, what she was supposed to do now.**

**There was a light knock at the door. Startled, Poppy looked up to see her**

**mother and Cliff. For a moment all she could focus on was their faces, which**

**gave her the strange illusion that the faces were floating in midair.**

**Her mother had red and swollen eyes. Cliff was pale, like a piece of crumpled**

**white paper, and his jaw looked stubbly and dark in contrast.**

**Oh, my God, are they going to tell me? They can't; they can't make me listen to**

**it.**

**Poppy had the wild impulse to run. She was on the verge of panic.**

**But her mother said, "Sweetie, some of your friends are here to see you. Phil**

**called them this afternoon to let them know you were in the hospital, and they**

**just arrived."**

**James, Poppy thought, something springing free in her chest. But James wasn't**

**part of the group that came crowding through the doorway. It was mostly girls**

**from school.**

"I wasn't really that close to most of the girls. Most of them just wanted access to Phil."

"I know how that feels." Maggie said.

**It doesn't matter. He'll call later. I don't have to think now.**

**As a matter of fact, it was impossible to think with so many visitors in the**

**room. And that was good. It was incredible that Poppy could sit there and talk**

**to them when part of her was farther away than Neptune, but she did talk and**

**that kept her brain turned off.**

**None of them had any idea that something serious was wrong with her. Not even**

**Phil, who was at his brotherly best, very kind and considerate. They talked**

**about ordinary things, about parties and Rollerblading and music and books.**

**Things from Poppy's old life, which suddenly seemed to have been a hundred years**

**ago.**

**Cliff talked, too, nicer than he had been since the days when he was courting**

**Poppy's mother.**

"Two faced bitch." Morgead said. This earned stares from most of the occupants in the room.

"I thought you hated humans." Mare asked confused.

"I do. But Poppy is fun. And James likes her so she can't be that bad. Like you. You're pretty cool yourself." Morgead explained.

**But finally the visitors left, and Poppy's mother stayed. She touched Poppy**

**every so often with hands that shook slightly. If I didn't know, I'd know, Poppy**

**thought. She isn't acting like Mom at all.**

**"I think I'll stay here tonight," her mother said. Not quite managing to sound**

**offhand. "The nurse said I can sleep on the window seat; it's really a couch for**

**parents. I'm just trying to decide whether I should run back to the house and**

**get some things."**

**"Yes, go," Poppy said. There was nothing else she could say and still pretend**

**that she didn't know. Be sides, her mom undoubtedly needed some time by herself, away from this.**

**Just as her mother left, a nurse in a flowered blouse and green scrub pants**

**came in to take Poppy's temperature and blood pressure. And then Poppy was**

**alone.**

**It was late. She could still hear a TV, but it was far away. The door was ajar,**

**but the hallway outside was dim. A hush seemed to have fallen over the ward.**

**She felt very alone, and the pain was gnawing deep inside her. Beneath the**

**smooth skin of her abdomen, the tumor was making itself known.**

**Worst of all, James hadn't called. How could he not call? Didn't he know she**

**needed him?**

"Where are you?" Theirry asked. He hated when people abandoned important in their life, after all, he had to spent century after century being left by his soulmate.

"I don't know." James said frowning. He hated the fact that Poppy was alone in her time of need.

**She wasn't sure how long she could go on not thinking about It.**

**Maybe the best thing would be to try to sleep. Get unconscious. Then she**

**couldn't think.**

**But as soon as she turned out the light and closed her eyes, phantoms swirled**

**around her. Not images of pretty bald girls; skeletons. Coffins. And worst of**

**all, an endless darkness.**

**If I die, I won't be here. Will I be anywhere? Or will I just Not Be at all?**

**It was the scariest thing she'd ever imagined, Not Being. And she was**

**definitely thinking now, she couldn't help it. She'd lost control. A galloping**

**fear consumed her, made her shiver under the rough sheet and thin blankets. I'm**

**going to die, I'm going to**

**die, I'm going to**

"Poppy. Please. Don't think like this-that." James said his voice covering her pain.

**"Poppy"**

**Her eyes flew open. For a second she couldn't identify the black silhouette in**

**the darkened room. She had a wild idea that it was Death itself coming to get**

**her.**

**Then she said, "James?"**

**"I wasn't sure if you were asleep."**

**Poppy reached for the bedside button that turned on the light,**

"Don't, do you really want to explain to the nurses how he got in your room?" Keller said sceptically. Rashel nod in agreement.

**but James said,**

**"No, leave it off. I had to sneak past the nurses, and I don't want them to**

**throw me out."**

"Wow, you actually have some survival instincts in you." Ash and Quin said simultaneously. Quin glared at Ash for stealing his line. Ash grinned. Everyone laughed. Glad for the tension breaker.

**Poppy swallowed, her hands clenched on a fold of blanket. "I'm glad you came,"**

**she said. "I thought you weren't going to come." What she really wanted was to**

**throw herself into his arms and sob and scream.**

**But she didn't. It wasn't just that she'd never done anything like that with him before; it was something about him that stopped her. Something she couldn't**

**put her finger on, but that made her feel almost ... frightened.**

**The way he was standing? The fact that she couldn't see his face? All she knew**

**was that James suddenly seemed like a stranger.**

"You're not suppose to scare her." Mare chided James.

"Yeah, you should be comforting her, idiot." Maggie said cheekily.

"Or maybe shagging her." Jez said slyly. Poppy and James blushed beetroot red.

**He turned around and very slowly closed the heavy door.**

**Darkness. Now the only light came in through the window. Poppy felt curiously**

**isolated from the rest of the hospital, from the rest of the world.**

**And that should have been good, to be alone with James, protected from**

**everything else. If only she weren't having this weird feeling of not**

**recognizing him.**

**"You know the test results," he said quietly. It wasn't a question.**

**"My mom doesn't know I 'know," Poppy said. How could she be talking coherently**

**when all she wanted to do was scream? "I overheard the doctors telling her...**

**James, I've got it. And ... it's bad; it's a bad kind of cancer. They said it's**

**already spread. They said I'm going to . . ." She couldn't get the last word**

**out, even though it was shrieking through her mind.**

**"You're going to die," James said. He still seemed quiet and centered.**

**Detached.**

"What is wrong with you?" Gillian said. She couldn't believe a best friend could be so...calm like this at their best friend's death bed.

**"I read up on it," James went on, walking over to the window and looking out.**

**"I know how bad it is. The articles said there was a lot of pain. Serious pain „**

"Jamie, please stop. You are _so_, not helping." Poppy said sadly.

**"James," Poppy gasped.**

**"Sometimes they have to do surgery just to try to stop the pain. But whatever**

**they do, it won't save you. They can fill you full of chemicals and irradiate**

**you, and you'll still. die. Probably before the end of summer."**

**"James-"**

**"It will be your last summer-"**

"Stop it! For her sake James, stop it." It was surprisingly Gillian who said this. Tears were in her eyes. David got up and hugged her. Gillian froze. They stared at each other before sitting back.

**"James, for God's sake!" It was almost a scream.**

**Poppy was breathing in great shaking gulps, clinging to the blankets. "Why are**

**you doing this to me?"**

**He turned and in one movement seized her wrist, his fingers closing over the**

**plastic hospital bracelet. "I want you to understand that they can't help you,"**

**he said, ragged and intense. "Do you understand that?"**

"I'm pretty sure she understands _that_ James." Maggie said spitefully. All the girls were glaring at James for his tactlessness. James cowered behind Poppy who was laughing.

**"Yes, I understand," Poppy said. She could hear the mounting hysteria in her**

**own voice. "But is that what you came here to say? Do you want to kill me?"**

**His fingers tightened painfully. "No! I want to save you." Then he let out a**

**breath and repeated it more quietly, but with no less intensity. "I want to save**

**you, Poppy."**

**Poppy spent a few moments just getting air in and out of her lungs. It was hard**

**to do it without dissolving into sobs. "Well, you can't," she said at last. "No**

**body can."**

**"That's where you're wrong." Slowly he released her wrist and gripped the bed**

**rail instead. "Poppy, there's something I've got to tell you. Something about**

**me."**

**"James . . ." Poppy could breathe now, but she didn't know what to say. As far**

**as she could tell, James had gone crazy. In a way, if everything else hadn't**

**been so awful, she might have been flattered. James had lost his consummate**

**cool-over her. He was upset enough about her situation to go completely**

**nonlinear.**

"No, I'm still flattered." Poppy said. James looked at her. She didn't hate him because he kept it a secret from her.

**"You really do care," she said softly, with a laugh that was half a sob. She**

**put a hand on his where it rested on the bed rail.**

**He laughed shortly in turn. His hand flipped over to grasp hers roughly; then**

**he pulled away. "You have no idea," he said in a terse, strained voice.**

**Looking out the window, he added, "You think you know everything about me, but**

**you don't. There's something very important that you don't know."**

**By now Poppy just felt numb. She couldn't understand why James kept harping on**

**himself, when she was the one about to die. **

"Yeah James. Don't be so self absorbed. Or self centred." Morgead chided mockingly. Everyone laughed, thankful for the tension breaker.

**But she tried to conjure up some**

**sort of gentleness for him as she said, "You can tell me anything. You know**

**that."**

"You are _so_ nice." Ash said. Mare couldn't help but agree. But of course she couldn't tell _him_ that.

**"But this is something you won't believe. Not to mention that it's breaking the**

**laws."**

**"The law?"**

**"The laws. I go by different laws than you. Human laws don't mean much to us,**

**but our own are supposed to be unbreakable."**

"You're not doing a very good job at explaining." Quin said frowning. James frowned too.

**"James," Poppy said, with blank terror. He really was losing his mind.**

"See. She thinks your psycho too. I for one always knew you were psycho," Ash said jokingly.

**"I don't know the right way to say it. I feel like somebody in a bad horror**

**movie." He shrugged, and said without turning, "I know how this sounds, but ...**

**Poppy, I'm a vampire."**

"Wow, that's a brilliant way of telling her." Quin said while the other night-worlders laughed. James frowned, unsure of how Poppy in the book was going to react.

**Poppy sat still on the bed for a moment. Then she groped out wildly toward the**

**bedside table. Her fingers closed on a stack of little crescent-shaped plastic**

**basins and she threw the whole stack at him.**

**"You bastard!" she screamed, and reached for something else to throw.**

"Awesome!"

"Brilliant reaction."

"I was wrong, you are majorly cool."

Quin, Ash, _Quin_ and _Ash_, **(A/N:Okay,that is really confusing) **smirked.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 5**

**28**

Gillian pick up the book. "Chapter 5"

**James dodged as Poppy lobbed a paperback book at him. "Poppy"**

**"You jerk! You snake! How can you do this to me? You spoiled, selfish,**

**immature-"**

"Wow, you have one heck of an insult vocabulary don't you." Morgead said in slight admiration. Poppy smirked, "Yeah, make sure you remember _that_ when you get on my bad side."

Gillian continued reading after that (pointless) pause.

**"Shhh! They're going to hear you-**

**"Let them! Here I am, and I've just found out that I'm going to die, and all you can think of is playing a joke on me. A stupid, sick joke. I can't believe this. Do you think that's funny?" She ran out of breath to rave with. ^ , James, who had been making quieting motions with his hands, now gave up and looked toward the door.**

**"Here comes the nurse," he said.**

**"Good, and I'm going to ask her to throw you out," Poppy said. Her anger had collapsed, leaving her near tears. She had never felt so utterly betrayed and abandoned. "I hate you, you know," she said.**

"You don't really hate me do you." James asked sadly/hopefully.

"No. I just think you should of explained it better." Poppy told him reassuringly.

"No duh Sherlock." Jez said rolling her eyes.

**The door opened. It was the nurse with the flowered blouse and green scrub pants.**

**"Is anything the matter here?" she said, turning on the light. Then she saw James. "Now, let's see; you don't look like family," she said. She was smiling, but her voice had the ring of authority about to be enforced.**

"Really! I thought you two were related." Maggie said mock-shock. Everyone burst out laughing.

**"He's not, and I want him out of here," Poppy said.**

**The nurse fluffed up Poppy's pillows, put a gentle hand on her forehead. "Only family members are allowed to stay overnight," she said to James.**

**Poppy stared at the TV and waited for James to go. He didn't. He walked around the bed to stand by the nurse, who looked up at him while she continued straightening Poppy's blankets. Then her hands slowed and stopped moving. Poppy glanced at her sideways in surprise.**

**The nurse was just staring at James. Hands limp on the blankets, she gazed at him as if she were mesmerized. And James was just staring back. With the light on, Poppy could see James's face-and again she had that odd feeling of not recognizing him. He was very pale and almost stern looking, as if he were doing something that required an effort.**

"Gee, cous', looks like you need to practice more." Ash said (slightly) snarkily.

**His jaw was tight and his eyes-his eyes were the color of silver. Real silver, shining in the light.**

**For some reason, Poppy thought of a starving panther.**

"Sorry, I think I'm the only panther around here. And I'm not feeling particularly hungry right now." Keller said with a wry smile.

**"So you see there's nothing wrong here," James said to the nurse, as if continuing a conversation they'd been having.**

**The nurse blinked once, then looked around the room as if she'd just awakened from a doze. "No, no; everything's fine," she said. " Call me if ..." She looked briefly distracted again, then murmured, "If, um, you need anything." She walked out. Poppy watched her, forgetting to breathe. Then, slowly, moving only her eyes, she looked at James.**

Jez, Quinn and Ash all scoffed. "Cliché much." Jez said.

**"I know it's a cliché," James said. **

"Then why did you do it?" Delos asked innocently. Everyone stared at him before Jez burst into laughter. Morgead and the other vamps followed suited.

"Wow, you can talk. I thought you were mute or something." Maggie said in fake awe. Delos laughed. This got everyone into another round of (very loud) laughter.

**"An overused demonstration of power. But it gets the job done."**

**"You set this up with her," Poppy said in a bare whisper.**

"I don't think he did." Gillian said with a smirk. Poppy glared at her before cracking into a smile.

**"No."**

**"Or else it's some kind of psychic trick. The Amazing Whatshisname."**

"Are you talking about Houdini?" Mare and Hannah asked at the same time.

Poppy shrugged, "Guess so."

**"No," James said, and sat down on an orange plastic chair.**

**"Then I'm going crazy." For the first time that evening Poppy wasn't thinking about her illness. She couldn't think properly about anything; her mind was a whirling, crashing jumble of confusion. She felt like Dorothy's house after it had been picked up by the tornado.**

**"You're not crazy. I probably did this the wrong way; **

"Yup. You definitely explained it wrong." Ash said to James. James glared at his cousin.

"Oh yeah. Well, I'd like to see you try explain it." Ash was about to retort when, "Guys! Cool it." Quinn snapped at them. They both ignored.

"Jamie, come on." Poppy said tugging James arm slightly. James relaxed and sat back down.

"Uh...can I continue now?" Gillian asked unsurely. Everyone in the room (minus Ash) nodded. Ash remained a cool demeanour. He didn't like the way this story was going. Even if he did know what happened.

**I said I didn't know how to explain it. Look, I know how hard it is for you to believe. My people arrange it that way; they do everything they can to keep humans not believing. Their lives depend on it."**

**"James, I'm sorry; I just-" Poppy found that her hands were trembling. She shut her eyes. "Maybe you'd better just-"**

**"Poppy, look at me. I'm telling you the truth. I swear it." He stared at her face a moment, then let out a breath. "Okay. I didn't want to have to do this,**

**but ..."**

**He stood, leaning close to Poppy. She refused to flinch, but she could feel her eyes widening.**

**"Now, look," he said, and his lips skinned back from his teeth. A simple action-but the effect was astonishing. Transforming. In that instant he changed from the pale but fairly ordinary James of a moment ago-into something Poppy had never seen before. A different species of human being. His eyes flared silver and his entire face took on a predatory look. But Poppy scarcely noticed that; she was staring at his teeth.**

**Not teeth. Fangs. He had canines like a cat's. Elongated and curving, ending in delicate, piercing points.**

"Cool!" Maggie, Hannah (A/N: I know right!) and Poppy said.

"Can you show us?" Poppy asked James, putting on her best puppy face look. James agreed and showed them (Mare immediately jumped on the opportunity to see it).

"That is so freaking cool." Mare said. Gillian looked queasy but didn't say anything. She continued reading.

**They were nothing like the fake vampire fangs sold at novelty stores. They looked very strong and very sharp and very real. Poppy screamed.**

"Wow, that is a very different reaction from the room you."Morgead said.

"The room me?"

"Yeah, theres book you and room you. There's also future you. See." He explained as though it was the most logical thing in the world. Everyone looked at him as if they were questioning his sanity. (If he had any.)

**James clapped a hand over her mouth. "We don't want that nurse back in here."**

**When he lifted the hand, Poppy said, "Oh, my God; oh, my God..." ,**

"I think you're in shock." Mare said simply.

**"All those times when you said I could read your mind," James said. "Remember? And the times when I heard things you didn't hear, or moved faster than you could move?"**

**"Oh. my God."**

"Can you please say something else? It's getting really annoying." Morgead said pointlessly.

**"It's true, Poppy." He picked up the orange chair and twisted one of the metal legs out of shape. He did it easily, gracefully. "We're stronger than humans," he said. He twisted the leg back and put the chair down. "We see better in the dark. We're built for hunting."**

"James, are you trying to give her a heart attack?" Rowan asked James who grinned sheepishly at her. Rowan only shook her head.

**Poppy finally managed to capture an entire thought. "I don't care what you can do," she said shrilly. "You can't be a vampire. I've known you since you were five years old. And you've gotten older every year, just like me. Explain that."**

**"Everything you know is wrong." When she just stared at him, he sighed again and said, "Everything you think you know about vampires, you've picked up from books or TV. And it's all written by humans, I'll guarantee that. Nobody in the Night World would break the code of secrecy."**

**"The Night World. Where's the Night World?"**

"The night world is not a place. It's a..." Rashel began when Gillian stopped her.

"It's okay. There's an explanation in this book."

**"It's not a place. It's like a secret society-for vampires and witches and werewolves. All the best people. And I'll explain about it later," James said grimly. "For now-look, it's simple. I'm a vampire because my parents are vampires. I was born that way. We're the lamia."**

"Yup. That's the Night World."Rashel said approvingly.

**All Poppy could think of was Mr. and Mrs. Rasmussen with their luxury ranch-style house and their gold Mercedes. "Your parents?"**

Poppy looked expectantly at James.

"Yeah. They're lamia's too.

**"Lamia is just an old word for vampires, but for us it means the ones who're born that way," James said, ignoring her. "We're born and we age like humans except that we can stop aging whenever we want. We breathe. We walk around in the daylight. We can even eat regular food."**

**"Your parents," Poppy said again faintly.**

**He looked at her. "Yeah. My parents. Look, why do you think my mom does interior decorating? Not because they need the money. She meets a lot of people that way, and so does my dad, the society shrink. It only takes a few minutes alone with somebody, and the human never remembers it afterward."**

**Poppy shifted uncomfortably. "So you, um, drink people's blood, huh?" Even after everything she'd seen, she couldn't say it without half-laughing.**

"They're vampires-lamia's geez happy Quinn- of course they drink blood." Maggie said. Poppy blushed at her bookselfs stupid question.

**James looked at the laces of his Adidas. "Yes. Yes, I sure do," he said softly. Then he looked up and met her gaze directly. His eyes were pure silver.**

"Why are they silver?" Mare asked James. A look of annoyance flashed across Ash's face.

"Because my eyes are silver when they're in vamp form shall we call it."

"What?" Mare asked confused.

"It means when he's a vampire, his inner self shows more in other words, his inner self has silver eyes. Like me." Jez said grinning. Mare nodded even though she didn't really understand.

**Poppy leaned back against the pile of pillows on her bed. Maybe it was easier to believe him because the unbelievable had already happened to her earlier today. Reality had already been turned upside down-so, honestly, what did one more impossibility matter?**

**I'm going to die and my best friend is a bloodsucking monster, she thought. The argument was over, and she was out of energy. She and James looked at each other in silence.**

**"Okay," she said finally, and it meant everything she'd just realized.**

**"I didn't tell you this just to get it off my chest," James said, his voice still muted. "I said I could save you, remember?"**

**"Vaguely." Poppy blinked slowly, then said more sharply, "Save me how?" His gaze shifted to empty air. "The way you're thinking."**

**"Jamie, I can't think anymore."**

Everyone laughed.

**Gently, without looking at her, he put a hand on her shin under the blanket. He shook her leg slightly, a gesture of affection. "I'm gonna turn you into a**

**vampire, kid." Poppy put both fists to her face and began to cry.**

"What!"Ash exploded. Even though he knew that James was going to change Poppy, it was still a shock. "Are you seriously going to this?"

"Looks like it. That's why you're still here." James said to _Poppy who nodded._

"Are you nuts? You're going to throw your whole life away for a...a vermin?" Ash said angrily. Most of the occupants in the room rose up. Thierry, Delos, Galen, Jez and Morgead (who liked Poppy) looked murderous. The humans were all joining forces. Thea and Keller were thinking about how they were going to kill Ash and Rowan looked at her brother sadly.

"Poppy is not vermin." James said angrily.

"Well give me a reason why you're going to defy all laws and turn her." Ash replied back totally not caring about the death glares he was receiving. The future him was being restrained as much as possible by the other future people.

"Because they're soulmates." Rowan said quietly.

"What." Ash said confusedly, "That doesn't exist."

"Yeah and I thought Vampire hunters didn't exist. Shows you how much I was wrong." Rowan said. Ash gulped. He didn't like the word; it made his stomach feel sick.

"Guys, come on. Who cares what Ash thinks. If he wants to act that way. Beat's him. I really couldn't care less." Mare said defiantly. Everyone nodded and sat back down, ignoring Ash completely. They continued reading.

**"Hey." He let go of her shin and put an awkward arm around her, pulling her to sit up. "Don't do that. It's okay. It's better than the alternative."**

**"You're . . . freaking . . . crazy," Poppy sobbed. Once the tears had started, they flowed too easily she couldn't stop them. There was comfort in crying, and in being held by James. He felt strong and reliable and he smelled good.**

**"You said you had to be born one," she added blurrily, between sobs.**

**"No, I didn't. I said I was born one. There are plenty of the other kind around. Made vampires. There would be more, but there's a law against just making any jerk off the street into one."**

**"But I can't. I'm just what I am; I'm me. I can't be-like that."**

**He put her gently away so he could look into her face. "Then you're going to die. You don't have any other choice. I checked around-even asked a witch. There's nothing else in the Night World to help you. What it comes down to is: Do you want to live or not?"**

**Poppy's mind, which had been swamped in confusion again, suddenly fixed on this question. It was like a flashlight beam in a pitch-black room. Did she want to live?**

"Hell yeah I want to live." Poppy shouted. Everyone laughed.

**Oh, God, of course she did.**

**Until today she'd assumed it was her unconditional right to live. She hadn't even been grateful for the privilege. But now she knew it wasn't something to take for granted-and she also knew it was something she'd fight for. Wake up, Poppy! This is the voice of reason calling. He says he can save your life.**

**"Wait a minute. I've got to think," Poppy said tightly to James. Her tears had stopped. She pushed him away completely and stared fiercely at the white hospital blanket.**

**Okay. Okay. Now get your head straight, girl. You knew James had a secret. So you never imagined it was anything like this, so what? He's still James. He may be some god awful undead fiend, but he still**

**cares about you. And there's nobody else to help you.**

**She found herself clutching at James's hand without looking at him. "What's it like?" she said through clenched teeth.**

"Dunno. I've never been bitten before." James said wryly.

"Here, let me give you a demo." Ash said through his teeth. Everyone ignored him.

**Steady and matter-of-fact, he said, "It's different. It's not something I'd recommend if there was another choice, but ... it's okay. You'll be sick while your body's changing, but afterward you'll never get any kind of disease again. You'll be strong and quick-and immortal."**

**"I'd live forever? But would I be able to stop aging?" She had visions of**

**herself as an immortal crone.**

**He grimaced. "Poppy-you'd stop aging now. That's what happens to made vampires. Essentially, you're dying as a mortal. You'll look dead and be unconscious for a while. And then ... you'll wake up."**

**"I see." Sort of like Juliet in the tomb, Poppy thought. And then she thought, Oh, God ... Mom and Phil.**

**"There's another thing you should know," James was saying. "A certain percentage of people don't make it."**

Poppy gulped, "Don't make it." The vampires and lamia's all avoided her gaze.

**"Don't make it?"**

Everyone laughed lightly.

**"Through the change. People over twenty almost never do. They don't ever wake up. Their bodies can't adjust to the new form and they burn out. Teenagers usually live through it, but not always."**

**Oddly enough, this was comforting to Poppy. A qualified hope seemed more believable than an absolute one. To live, she would have to take a chance. She looked at James. "How do you do it?"**

**"The traditional way," he said with the ghost of a smile. Then, gravely: "We exchange blood."**

Poppy grimaced. James chuckled lightly and hugged her.

**Oh, great, Poppy thought. And I was afraid of a simple shot. Now I'm going to have my blood drawn by fangs. She swallowed and blinked, staring at nothing.**

**"It's your choice, Poppy. It's up to you."**

**There was a long pause, and then she said, "I want to live, Jamie." He nodded. "It'll mean going away from here. Leaving your parents. They can't know."**

**"Yeah, I was just realizing that. Sort of like getting a new identity from the FBI, huh?"**

**"More than that. You'll be living in a new world, the Night World. And it's a lonely world, full of secrets. But you'll be walking around in it, instead of lying in the ground." He squeezed her hand. Then he said very quietly and seriously, "Do you want to start now?"**

"Yes. If it means I could live. Then yeah, I'm doing it." Poppy said.

**All Poppy could think of to do was shut her eyes and brace herself the way she**

**did for an injection. "I'm ready," she said through stiff lips.**

**James laughed again-this time as if he couldn't help it. Then he folded the bed rail down and settled beside her. "I'm used to people being hypnotized when I do this. It's weird to have you awake."**

**"Yeah, well, if I scream you can hypnotize me," Poppy said, not opening her eyes.**

"It's okay. Just relax. It might not even hurt. Much." James mumbled the last part quietly.

**Relax, she told herself firmly. No matter how much it hurts, no matter how awful it is, you can deal with it. You have to. Your life depends on it. Her heart was thumping hard enough to shake her body.**

**"Right here," James said, touching her throat with cool fingers as if feeling for a pulse.**

**Just do it, Poppy thought. Get it over with. She could feel warmth as James leaned close to her, taking her carefully by the shoulders. Every nerve ending in her skin was aware of him. Then she felt cool**

**breath on her throat, and quickly, before she could recoil, a double sting. Those fangs, burying themselves in her flesh. Making two little wounds so he could drink her blood ...**

**Now it's really going to hurt, Poppy thought. She couldn't brace herself anymore. Her life was in the hands of a hunter. She was a rabbit trapped in the coils of a snake, a mouse under the claws of a cat. She didn't feel like James's best friend, she felt like lunch...**

"You're not. You're my friend. Not my lunch." James said firmly.

**Poppy, what are you doing? Don't fight it. It hurts when you resist. James was speaking to her-but the warm mouth on her throat hadn't moved. The voice was in her head.**

**I'm not resisting, Poppy thought. I'm just ready for it to hurt, that's all. There was a burning where his teeth pierced her. She waited for it to get worse-but it didn't. It changed.**

**Oh, Poppy thought.**

**The feeling of heat was actually pleasant. A sensation of release, of giving. And closeness. She and James were getting closer and closer, like two drops of water moving together until they merged.**

"Wow, that sounds sort of...cool. is that weird?" Mare asked Quinn who looked shock at being address to.

"Well, yeah. I think it's kinda weird. But I guess you have to be slightly boinks on the head to be in a room full of vampires, lamia's, shapeshifters and witches." Quinn said shrugging. Everyone nodded.

**She could sense James's mind. His thoughts-and his feelings. His emotions flowed into her, through her.**

**Tenderness ... concern ... caring. A cold black rage at the disease that was threatening her. Despair that there was no other way to help her. And longing-longing to share with her, to make her happy.**

**Yes, Poppy thought. A wave of sweetness made her dizzy. She found herself groping for James's hand, their fingers intertwining.**

**James, she thought with wonder and joy. Her communication to him a tentative caress. Poppy. She could feel his own surprise and delight. And all the time the dreamy pleasure was building. Making Poppy shiver with its intensity. How could I have been so stupid? Poppy thought. To be afraid of this. It isn't terrible. It's .. . . right.**

Poppy looked wistful at that situation.

**She had never been so close to anybody. It was as if they were one being together, not predator and prey, but partners in a dance. Poppy-and-James. She could touch his soul. Strangely enough, he was afraid of that. She could sense it. Poppy, don't-so many dark things-I don't want you to see ...**

**Dark, yes, Poppy thought. But not dark and terrible. Dark and lonely. Such utter loneliness. A feeling of not belonging in either of the two worlds he knew. Not belonging anywhere. Except ...**

**Suddenly Poppy was seeing an image of herself. In his mind she was fragile and graceful, an emerald eyed spirit of the air. A sylph-with a core of pure steel. I'm not really like that, she thought. I'm not tall and beautiful like Jacklyn or Michaela...**

"No. You're different. You're special," James said to Poppy who thought she would die because of that statement. Ash looked away and his eyes had somehow took him to Mare. He cursed himself before staring at empty space.

**The words she heard in answer didn't seem di rected toward her-she had the feeling they were something James was thinking to himself, or remembering from some long-forgotten book.**

**You don't love a girl because of beauty. You love her because she sings a song only you can understand...**

**With the thought came a strong feeling of protectiveness. So this was how James felt about her-she knew at last. As if she were something precious, something to be protected at all costs...**

**At all costs. No matter what happened to him. Poppy tried to follow the thought deeper into his mind, to find out what it meant. She got an impression of**

**rules-no, laws ... Poppy, it's bad manners to search somebody's mind when you're not invited. The**

**words were tinged with desperation.**

"Sorry." Poppy said but she didn't sound so sorry.

**Poppy pulled back mentally. She hadn't meant to pry. She just wanted to help...**

"Sorry." James said this time and they both chuckled/giggled.

**I know, James's thought came to her, and with it a rush of warmth and gratitude. Poppy relaxed and simply enjoyed the feeling of oneness with him. I wish it could last forever, she thought-and just then it stopped. The warmth at her neck disappeared, and James pulled away, straightening.**

**Poppy made a sound of protest and tried to drag him back. He wouldn't let her. "No-there's something else we have to do," he whispered. But he didn't do anything else. He just held her, his lips against her forehead. Poppy felt peaceful and languid.**

**"You didn't tell me it would be like that," she said.**

"We've been through this before." Quinn said a grin playing on his lips. Poppy through a pillow that miraculously appeared (_Thea_) at him. Quinn caught it neatly and smirked at Poppy.

**"I didn't know," James said simply. "It never has been before." They sat together quietly, with James gently stroking her hair. So strange, Poppy thought. Everything is the same-but everything's different.**

**It was as if she'd pulled herself up on dry land after almost drowning in the ocean. The terror that had been pounding in side her all day was gone, and for the first time in her life she felt completely safe.**

**After another minute or so James shook his head, rousing himself.**

**"What else do we have to do?" Poppy asked.**

**For an answer, James lifted his own wrist to his mouth. He made a quick jerking motion with his head, as if tearing a strip of cloth held in his teeth. When he lowered the wrist, Poppy saw blood.**

**It was running in a little stream down his arm. So red it almost didn't look real. Poppy gulped and shook her head.**

"Uh...Ew. That sounds not-too-cool." Maggie said. The humans all agreed.

**"It's not that bad," James said softly. "And you have to do it. Without my blood in you, you won't become a vampire when you die, you'll just die. Like any other human victim."**

**And I want to live, Poppy thought. All right, then. Shutting her eyes, she allowed James to guide her head to his wrist.**

**It didn't taste like blood, or at least not like the blood she'd tasted when she bit her tongue or put a cut finger in her mouth. It tasted-strange. Rich and potent.**

**Like some magic elixir, Poppy thought dizzily. And once again she felt the touch of James's mind. Intoxicated with the closeness, she kept drinking.**

"Can you get drunk from drinking too much blood?" Hannah asked Thierry.

"Yeah, if the person you're drinking from is drunk (A/N: I took that from House of Night.).

"Oh."

**That's right. You've got to take a lot, James told her. But his mental voice was weaker than it had been. Instantly Poppy felt a surge of alarm. But what will it do to you?**

**"I'll be all right," James said aloud. "It's you I'm worried about. If you don't get enough, you'll be in danger."**

**Well, he was the expert. And Poppy was happy to let the strange, heady potion keep flowing into her. She basked in the glow that seemed to be lighting her from the inside out. She felt so tranquil, so calm...**

"I like how that sounds." Poppy said absentmindedly. The other humans nodded.

**And then, without warning, the calm was shattered. A voice broke into it, a voice full of harsh surprise.**

**"What are you doing?" the voice said, and Poppy looked up to see Phillip in the doorway.**

"Oh crap." Poppy said.

"And enters the over-protective brother who is going to kick James ass for being in the same room as Poppy at night." Maggie said in talk show host mode. Everyone laughed at Maggie's joke.

"That's it. Look Quinn! You'll get to tell us if Phillip kicks James ass." Gillian said. Everyone laughed.


	7. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: I do not own the NW series. They all belong to L. J. Smith._

_Okay, loads of people have asked me if I'm doing the rest of the NW stories. The answer is yes, I am. Thanks for those who reviewed! Well, that's it. Enjoy!_

**James moved fast. He picked up the plastic tumbler on the bedside table and handed it to Poppy. She understood. Feeling giddy and uncoordinated, she took a healthy swig of water and licked her lips to wash any traces of blood away.**

"Good. Make sure you hide all the evidence. No offense, but I don't think your brother is the most open-minded person." Rashel said grimly.

"None taken. And yes, Phil is not the most open-minded person." Poppy replied nonchantly.

**"What are you doing?" Phillip repeated, striding into the room. His eyes were fixed on James, which was good, because Poppy was trying to position herself to hide the side of her neck that James had bitten.**

"You don't have to." James said laughing with the other vampires and lamia's.

"Why not?" Poppy asked curiously.

"Because, their most likely gone." Jez said.

Mare was just about to ask something else when _Ash_ said, "It's our venom. It...shall we say heal the wounds." Everyone looked at him in shock.

He shrugged, "She was about to ask it."

"No. You're actually civil to her. Who are you and want have you done to Ash we all know and hate?" Morgead asked. Ash smirked.

"Let's just say I met someone who change my opinion on humans." Everyone stared at them.

"Guys. Can we continue? I'm feeling hungry." Quinn asked impatiently. The vamps and lamia's all nodded.

**"None of your business," she said, **

"Yes, and that's a great way to tell a _brother_ who is seeing his _sister in bed with a guy_ the brother hates." Quinn said sarcastically. He received a slap from both Rashel and Poppy.

"Ow. That hurt."

"Idiot." _Quinn_ muttered quietly.

**and in the same instant she knew it was a mistake. Phillip, whose middle name was Stability, was looking distinctly unstable tonight. Mom told him, Poppy thought.**

"I pity him. I really do. He just found out that his twin only has what...a few months to live." Maggie solemnly. Those with brothers all nod. Even Rowan.

**"I mean, we aren't doing anything, " she amended.**

"And he's going to believe that straight away because...?" Quinn asked the room at large. All of them last while Quinn received two more slaps from Poppy and his future counterpart.

"Arghhh. Stop it. You're embarrassing me. Really, why is my past self such an idiot?" _Quinn_ said. This got everyone laughing.

"Hey!"

"Just read."

**It didn't help. Phil was clearly in a mood to see everything in the world as a threat to his sister. And Poppy couldn't really blame him-he'd walked in on the two of them in a strange embrace on a rumpled hospital bed.**

"I told you so." Quin said in a sing-song voice and easily dodge a pillow sent by Poppy.

**"James was comforting me because I was scared," she said. She didn't even try to explain why James had been cradling her head to his arm. But she glanced at James's arm surreptitiously and saw that the wound there was already closed, the mark fading.**

"See." Ash said icily to Mare. Ash was hating the attention everyone else got from Mary-Lynette, even if he couldn't really say why.

"Tell me, is your attitude something you practised and perfected or were you just born a prat." Mary-Lynette said sweetly. Ash lost his temper. He was just about to reply when _Ash _ (A/N: okay. It's a tad bit confusing) stopped his past self.

"Sit down," he hissed. And Ash did. Everyone stared at him dumbfounded.

"Whoa. That was just so not Ash-like." James said.

"Er...I'll just continue shall I." Quinn said.

**"Everything's all right, you know," James said, standing to fix a mesmerizing silver gaze on Phillip. But Phil hardly gave him a glance. He was staring at Poppy.**

**It's not working, Poppy thought. Maybe Phil's too mad to be hypnotized. Or too stubborn.**

"Maybe..." Thea said. There was something about Poppy that intrigued her. Maybe Phil's the same since their twins, she thought silently. 'What if...,' she thought and her eyebrows came up. 'No, it's not possible. Is it?' Thea thought silently. Looks like she'll just have to wait and find out.'

**She looked a question at James, which he answered with a barely discernable shake of his head. He didn't know what the problem was, either.**

Most of the people in the room was pondering on that question too. Most of them were frowning.

**They both knew what it meant. James was going to have to leave. Poppy felt cheated and frustrated. All she wanted was to talk with James, to revel in their new discovery of each other-and she couldn't. Not with Phil here.**

**"How come you're here, anyway?" she asked him irritably.**

**"I drove Mom here. You know she doesn't like driving at night. And I brought this." He swung her boom box up onto the bedside table. "And these." He put a black CD case beside it. "All your favorite music."**

Tears flooded Poppy's eyes. James grabbed her hand and squeezed it slightly.

"It'll be okay." James said reassuringly. Poppy nodded and gave him a watery smile.

**Poppy felt her anger draining away. "That was sweet," she said. She was touched, especially since Phil hadn't said "All your favorite weird music," which was usually how he referred to it. "Thank you."**

**Phil shrugged, shooting a glare at James. Poor Phil, Poppy thought. Her brother actually looked disheveled. And his eyes were swollen.**

**"Where's Mom?" she was starting to say, when her mother walked in.**

**"I'm back, sweetie," her mother said, with a very creditable cheery smile. Then she looked surprised. "James-it was nice of you to come."**

**"Yeah, but he was just leaving," Phil said significantly. "I'll show him the way out."**

"Oooh...you're going to get the 'stay away from her talk now'." David said. Everyone looked at him.

"What, I've dated some girls with over-protective brothers you know." Gillian's throat tightened at the thought of David with other girls. James sighed. Poppy blushed at the thought of James getting that talk from Phil.

**James didn't waste energy on a fight he couldn't win. He turned to Poppy and said, "I'll see you tomorrow."**

**There was a look in his gray eyes-gray, not silver now-that was just for her. A look that had never been there before in all the years she'd known him.**

**"Goodbye, James," she said softly. "And-thank you." She knew he understood what she meant.**

**It wasn't until he was out the door, with Phillip on his heels like a bouncer after a rowdy customer, that a thought occurred to her.**

**James had said that she would be in danger if she didn't get enough of his blood. But they'd gotten interrupted almost immediately after that. Had Poppy gotten enough? And what would happen if she hadn't?**

"Let's not think about that okay." A pale James said at the same time Ash said, "You die." James glared ferociously at Ash. Mary-Lynnette lost it and got up.

"Why are you such a prat! Can't you see that she might actually die. Don't you care at all!"

"No. I don't. In case your little human didn't notice, she's here! Her future self. Isn't it obvious that she lives?" Ash shouted at her, pointing at _Poppy_, but the whole time he felt his insides getting colder and colder.

"So? Can't you at least show some compassion? Or are you too high and mighty to do that! You are such a...a...an ignorant obnoxious and self-absorbed monster!" she shouted before leaving the room through the door. Everyone was stunned silent. Ash was red from embarrassment or anger, no one knew.

"Shouldn't we go after her?" Maggie asked quietly. James nodded and left the room.

"Hey. You're not going to shout at me too are you?" James asked Mary –Lynnette. She gave James a watery smile.

"No. It's just Ash. He's such a..."

"Obnoxious, idiotic, self-absorbed, advantage taking prat." James said. Mary-Lynnette smiled at him again.

"Why don't we go back inside and read?" Mary-Lynnette smiled and nodded. She wiped her tears and they went inside. Rowan got up instantly.

"Mary-Lynnette, I just want to say that..."

"No. It's okay. Really." Ash was sitting on his beanbag angrily. He wanted to kill her for embarrassing him. But he couldn't . He could kill James though for going after her. No, there are too many people in here who could kill him. He was outnumbered.

"I'll just...continue..." Quinn mumbled softly.

**She herself had no idea, and there was no way to ask James. Phil stayed right behind James all the way out of the hospital. Not tonight, James thought. He just couldn't deal with Phillip North tonight.**

**His patience was gone, and his mind was occupied in calculating whether Poppy had taken enough of his blood to be safe. He thought she had-but the sooner she got more, the better.**

**"You'll 'see her tomorrow'-well, you're not going to see her tomorrow," Phil said abruptly as they walked into the garage.**

**"Phil, give me a break." Instead, Phillip stepped in front of him and stopped dead, forcing James to stop, too. Phillip was breathing quickly, his green eyes burning.**

**"Okay, bud, " he said. "I don't know what you think you're doing with Poppy-but it's all over now. From now on you stay away from her. Understand?"**

"See. The stay away from my sister speech." David said causing everyone (minus both Ash's who were still angry. The future one angry at his past one.).

**Visions of breaking Phillip's neck like a new pencil danced in James's head. But Phil was Poppy's brother, and his green eyes were surprisingly like hers. "I would never hurt Poppy," he said wearily.**

**"Give me a break. Are you going to stand there and tell me you don't want to move in on her?"**

Poppy looked hopeful at that sentence.

**James couldn't come up with an answer immediately. Yesterday he could have truthfully said no, he didn't want to move in on Poppy. Because it would have meant a death sentence for him and Poppy both. It was only when Poppy had received a death sentence of her own that he'd allowed himself to look at his feelings.**

**And now ... now he'd been close to Poppy. He'd touched her mind, and had found that she was even braver and more gallant than he'd thought; even more compassionate-and more vulnerable.**

**He wanted to be that close to Poppy again. He cared about her in a way that made his throat ache. He belonged with Poppy. He also realized that that might not be enough. Sharing blood forged a powerful bond between two people. It would be wrong of him to take advantage of that bond-or of Poppy's gratitude to him. Until he was sure that Poppy's mind was clear and her decisions were her own, he should keep a little distance. It was the only honorable thing to do.**

**"The last thing I want to do is hurt her," he repeated. "Why can't you believe that?" He made a half-hearted attempt to capture Phil's gaze as he said it. It failed, just as it had in the hospital. Phillip seemed to be one of those rare humans who couldn't be influenced by mind control.**

"Please Phil. For once, don't be so _bloody_ stubborn." Poppy said wistfully.

**"Why can't I believe it? Because I know you. You and your-girlfriends." Phil managed to make the word sound like a curse. "You go through six or seven a year-and when you're through with them, you dump them like trash."**

**James was distracted briefly by amusement, because Phil was dead on. He needed six girlfriends a year. After two months the bond between them became dangerously strong.**

**"Poppy's not my girlfriend and I'm not going to dump her," he said, pleased at his own cleverness. He'd avoided an outright lie-Poppy wasn't his girl friend in any normal sense. They'd merged their souls, that was all-they hadn't talked about dating or anything.**

"Why don't you tell him that. I bet he'd just love it!" Quinn said comically.

"Again. Why is my past self so stupid? I'm pretty sure I wasn't that stupid back then." Quinn said.

"Nah. You were stupider." Morgead said cheekily and hive-fived his future self. Everyone laughed.

**"So you are telling me you're not gonna try to put the moves on her. Is that it? Because you'd better be sure." As he spoke, Phil did what was probably the most dangerous thing he'd ever done in his life. He grabbed James by the front of the shirt.**

**You stupid human, James thought. He briefly co sidered breaking every bone in Phil's hand. Or picking Phil up and throwing him across the garage into somebody's windshield. Or ...**

"Please don 't do anything to him Jamie." Poppy said pleadingly.

"Of course I won't." But you can't stop my book self, James thought silently.

**"You're Poppy's brother," he said through his teeth. "So I'm going to give you a chance to let go."**

Poppy (and James) sighed in relieved.

**Phil stared into his face a moment, then let go, looking slightly shaken. But not shaken enough to keep quiet.**

**"You have to leave her alone," he said. "You don't understand. This disease she's got it's serious. She doesn't need anything messing up her life right now. She just needs . . ." He stopped and swallowed.**

**Suddenly James felt very tired. He couldn't blame Phil for being upset-Phil's mind was full of crystal clear pictures of Poppy dying. Usually James got only general images about what humans were thinking, but Phillip was broadcasting so loud it nearly deafened him.**

Everyone was sombre at this.

**Half-truths and evasions hadn't worked. It was time for Outright Lies. Anything to satisfy Phil and get James away from this.**

**"I know that what Poppy has is serious," he said. "I found an article about it on the Net. That's why I was here, okay? I feel sorry for her. I'm not interested in Poppy except as a friend, but it makes her feel better if I pretend that I like her."**

"You don't mean that do you." Poppy asked James worriedly.

"Of course not, you heard the sentence. Outright Lies. See." James said reassuringly.

**Phillip hesitated, looking at him hard and suspiciously. Then he shook his head slowly. "Being friends is one thing, but it's wrong to mix her up. In the end, pretending isn't going to do her any good. I don't even think it makes her feel better now-she looked pretty bad in there."**

**"Bad?"**

**"Pale and shaky. You know Poppy; you know how she gets overexcited about things. You shouldn't be fooling around with her emotions." He narrowed his eyes and said, "So maybe you'd better stay away from her for a while. Just to make sure she hasn't got the wrong idea."**

**"Whatever," James said. He wasn't really listening.**

"You really should. When your enemy is saying something, it's most likely important." Rashel and Keller said, frowning.

**"Okay," Phillip said. "We have a deal. But I'm warning you, if you break it, you're in trouble."**

**James wasn't listening to that, either. Which was a mistake.**

"Of course it wasn't," Rashel muttered. Keller giggled at her mutter.

**In the darkened hospital room Poppy lay and listened to her mother's breathing. You're not asleep, she thought, and I'm not asleep. And you know I'm not, and I know you're not...**

**But they couldn't talk. Poppy wanted desperately to let her mother know that everything was going to be all right-but how? She couldn't betray James's secret. And even if she could, her mother wouldn't believe her.**

"It's very convenient. You know, that humans think we don't exist." Quinn said absent-mindedly.

"Are you always this random?" Maggie asked. Quinn just shrugged and continued reading.

**I have to find a way, Poppy thought. I have to. And then a great wave of drowsiness overtook her. It had been the longest day in her life, and she was full of alien blood already working its strange magic in her. She couldn't ... she just couldn't ... keep her eyes open.**

**Several times during the night a nurse came in to take her vital signs, but Poppy never really woke up. For the first time in weeks, no pain interrupted her dreams.**

**She opened her eyes the next morning feeling con fused and weak. Black dots swarmed through her vision when she sat up.**

**"Hungry?" her mother asked. "They left this breakfast tray for you."**

**The smell of hospital eggs made Poppy feel nauseated. But because her mother was watching her anxiously, she played with the food on the tray before she went to wash up. In the bathroom mirror she examined the side of her neck. Amazing-there was no trace of a mark.**

Quinn only manage to open his mouth before his future counter-part hissed, "One word and I'll make sure Rashel or Jez get your intestines ge ripped out from you." Quinn shut his mouth quickly. Everyone stared at him.

"Well, aren't you going to read." Poppy asked irritated. Quinn looked at his future self.

"You can read the book. Just don't make stupid comments. It ruins our image." _Quinn_ said irritated.

**When she came out of the bathroom, her mother was crying. Not floods of tears, not sobbing. Just dabbing her eyes on a Kleenex. But Poppy couldn't stand it.**

**"Mom, if you're worried about telling me ... I know."**

**The whole sentence was out before Poppy could even think about it. Her mother's head jerked up in horror. She stared at Poppy with more tears spilling. "Sweetheart-you know ... ?"**

**"I know what I've got and I know how bad it is," Poppy said. If this was the wrong strategy, it was too late now. "I listened when you and Cliff were talking to the doctors."**

**"Oh, my Lord."**

**What can I say? Poppy wondered. It's okay, Mom, because I'm not going to die; I'm going to become a vampire. I hope. I can't be sure, because sometimes you don't make it through the transformation. But with any luck, I should be sucking blood in a few weeks.**

"Yup that's exactly what you should say." Morgead said.

"Arghh...not you too." Quinn said annoyed. Morgead smiled cheekily.

**Come to think of it, she hadn't asked James exactly how long it would take to change her.**

**Her mother was taking deep, calming breaths. "Poppy, I want you to know how much I love you. Cliff and I will do anything-anything-we can to help you. Right now he's looking into some clinical protocols-those are experimental studies where they test new ways of treating people. If we can just .. . buy time ... until a cure . ' .."**

**Poppy couldn't stand it. She could feel her mother's pain. Literally. It carried in palpable waves that seemed to echo through her bloodstream, making her dizzy. It's that blood, she thought. It's doing something to me-changing me.**

"It's the vamp blood taking affect." James said.

**Even as she thought it, she went to her mother. She wanted to hug her, and she needed help standing up.**

**"Mom, I'm not scared," she said, muffled against her mother's shoulder. "I can't explain, but I'm not scared. And I don't want you to be unhappy over me." Her mother just held on fiercely, as if Death might try to snatch Poppy out of her arms that minute. She was crying.**

**Poppy cried, too. Real tears, because even if she wasn't going to die truly, she was going to lose so much. Her old life, her family, everything familiar. It felt good to cry over it; it was something she needed to do. But when it was done, she tried again.**

By then, all the girls were crying. Even Rashel and Keller had tears running down their faces. How could someone so young and full of life be dying?

**"The one thing I don't want is for you to be unhappy or worry," she said, and looked up at her mother. "So could you just try not to? For my sake?"**

**Oh, God, I'm coming off like Beth in Little Women, she thought. Saint Poppy. And the truth is, if I were really dying, I'd go kicking and screaming all the way.**

Everyone gave a watery laugh.

**Still, she'd managed to comfort her mother, who drew back looking tearstained but quietly proud. "You're really something, Poppet," was all she said, but her lips trembled.**

**Saint Poppy**

"_Saint_ Poppy. I don't think a lot of people would agree to that. I know Phil wouldn't, and most of the guys you pranked on, the teachers..." James started.

"Okay, I get it. I'm not a saint." Poppy said poutingly at James.

**looked away, horribly embarrassed until another wave of dizziness saved her. She allowed her mother to help her back into bed. And it was then that she finally found a way to pose the question she needed to ask.**

**"Mom," she said slowly, "what if there was a cure for me somewhere-like in some other country or something-and I could go there and get better, but they wouldn't ever let me come back? I mean, you'd know I was okay, but you wouldn't ever be able to see me again." She looked at her mother intently. "Would you want me to do it?"**

"Of course she would. No mother wants their daughter to die." Gillian said thinking if her mother would care if she died.

**Her mother answered instantly. "Sweetheart, I'd want you cured if you had to go to the moon. As long as you were happy." She had to pause a moment, then resumed steadily. "But, honey, there isn't such a place. I wish there were."**

**"I know." Poppy patted her arm gently. "I was just asking. I love you, Mom."**

"Yes, you were _just_ asking." Mare said for the first time since her burst-out.

**Later that morning Dr. Franklin and Dr. Loftus came by. Facing them wasn't as horrible as Poppy expected, but she felt like a hypocrite when they marvelled over her "wonderful attitude." They talked about quality time, and the fact that no two cases of cancer were the same, and about people they'd known who'd beaten the percentages. Saint Poppy squirmed inside, but she listened and nodded-until they began to talk about more tests.**

**"We'd like to do an angiogram and a laparotomy," Dr. Loftus said. "Now an**

**angiogram is-"**

"Tubes stuck in my veins?" Poppy said before she could help herself.

"Er...how did I know that?"

James shrugged and frowned at the same had a feeling she wasn't getting an answer any time soon.

**Everyone looked startled. Then Dr. Loftus gave a rueful smile. "Sounds like you've been reading up on it."**

**"No, I just-I guess I remember it from somewhere," Poppy said. She knew where she was getting the images-from Dr. Loftus's head. And she probably should cover her tracks instead of talking any more, but she was too distressed. "And a laparotomy's an operation, right?"**

"You seem to have a more telepathy than most humans. I wonder why..." James said.

"Looks like we've got a soon-to-be telepath on our hands." Jez said whooping.

**Dr. Loftus and Dr. Franklin exchanged glances. "An exploratory operation, yes," Dr. Franklin said.**

**"But I don't need those tests, do I? I mean, you already know what I've got. And the tests hurt."**

**"Poppy," her mother said gently. But Dr. Loftus was answering slowly.**

**"Well, sometimes we need the tests to confirm a diagnosis. But in your case ... no, Poppy. We don't really need them. We're already sure."**

"So there's no way out of this is there." Poppy said to herself.

**"Then I don't see why I have to have them," Poppy said simply. "I'd rather go home."**

**The doctors looked at each. other, then at Poppy's mother. Then, without even trying to be subtle about it, the three adults went out into the corridor to deliberate.**

**When they came back, Poppy knew she'd won.**

**"You can go home, Poppy," Dr. Franklin said quietly. "At least until you develop any further symptoms. The nurse will tell your mother what to look out for."**

**The first thing Poppy did was call James. He answered on the first ring and said, "How do you feel?"**

**"Dizzy. But pretty good," Poppy said, whispering because her mother was outside talking to a nurse. "I'm coming home."**

"I bet James loved hearing that." Maggie said slyly.

**"I'll come over this afternoon," James said. "Call me when you think you'll have an hour or so alone. And, Poppy ... don't tell Phil I'm coming." **

**"Why not?"**

**"I'll explain later."**

**When she actually got home, it was strange. Cliff and Phil were there. Everybody was unusually nice to her, while still trying to pretend that nothing unusual was going on. (Poppy had heard the nurse tell her mother that it was good to try and maintain a normal routine.)**

"Yes. That behaviour must be completely normal." Morgead said sarcastically. Everyone laughed.

**It's like my birthday, Poppy thought dazedly. Like some terribly important birthday and graduation rolled into one. Every few minutes the doorbell would ring as another flower arrangement arrived.**

"They should send you poppies. Get it, cause' your name is Poppy...and the flower poppies..." Delos said lamely.

"Don't. You're just embarrassing yourself. Maggie said patting his arm but nearly jumped when she felt a spark run up her arm. They stared at each other.

"Guys! Woo hoo, earth to Delos and Maggie. Look, they're alive!" Quinn said in front of Delos and Maggie. Everyone laughed at his antics and continued reading.

**Poppy's bedroom looked like a garden. She felt badly for Phil. He looked so stricken-and so brave. She wanted to comfort him the way she'd comforted her mother-but how?**

**"Come here," she ordered, opting for direct action. And when he obeyed, she hugged him tightly.**

"Aww..."The girls cooed.

"Aww..." the boys sniggered, they all received death glares form the girls.

**"You'll beat this thing," he whispered. "I know you will. Nobody's ever had as much will to live as you do. And nobody's ever, ever been as stubborn." It was then that Poppy realized just how terribly she was going to miss him. When she let go, she felt light-headed.**

"The blood." James muttered.

**"Maybe you'd better lie down," Cliff said gently. And Poppy's mother helped her**

**to the bedroom.**

**"Does Dad know?" she asked as her mother moved around the bedroom, straightening things.**

**"I tried to get hold of him yesterday, but the people at the station said he'd moved to somewhere in Vermont. They don't know where."**

Poppy looked at the floor. She really hoped that her father would be there when she... 'dies'. She looked up blinking back the tears and motion Quinn to continue.

**Poppy nodded. It sounded like her dad always on the move. He was a DJ-when he wasn't being an artist or a stage magician. He'd split up with her mom because he wasn't very good at being any of those things-or at least not good enough to get paid much.**

"Sound's cool though." Eric said and all the boys agreed while the girls shook their heads at their stupidity.

**Cliff was everything Poppy's father wasn't: responsible, disciplined, hardworking. He fit in perfectly with Poppy's mom and Phil. So perfectly that sometimes Poppy felt like the odd one out in her own family.**

**"I miss Dad," Poppy said softly.**

**"I know. Sometimes I do, too," her mother said, surprising her. Then she said firmly, "We'll find him, Poppy. As soon as he hears, he'll want to come." Poppy hoped so. She didn't suppose she'd get a chance to see him-after. It wasn't until an hour or so before dinnertime, when Phil and Cliff were out doing errands, and her mother was taking a nap, that Poppy got the chance to call James.**

"Like I said. I bet James loved the idea of you alone together." Maggie said her eyebrows arched. James and Poppy both blushed.

**"I'll come right over," he said. "I'll let myself in." Ten minutes later he walked into Poppy's bedroom.**

"Wow, didn't take you long to get there." Maggie said randomly.

"Maggie." Quinn said sweetly.

"Yeah."

"Could you shut up so we can finish this chapter before next year comes." He said and began reading without waiting for her reply.

**Poppy felt strangely shy. Things had changed between her and James. They weren't simply best friends anymore.**

**They didn't even say "Hi" to each other. As soon as he came in, their eyes caught and met. And then, for an endless moment, they just looked at each other. This time, when Poppy felt the quick pang in her chest that always came when she saw James, it was a throb of pure sweetness. He cared about her. She could see it in his eyes.**

**Wait a minute, hang on, her mind whispered. Don't jump the gun here. He cares about you, yes, but he didn't say he was in love with you. There's a difference.**

"I love you." James said simply. Poppy stared at him. So did everyone else.

"You're serious."

"Yeah. Since you're going to be a vamp anyway, I might as well just admit it." James said shrugging. Poppy beamed happily.

**Shut up, Poppy told her brain soberly. Aloud, she said, "How come you didn't want Phil to know you were here?"James threw his light windbreaker over a chair and sat down on Poppy's bed.**

"Because he wanted some time with you alone." Mare said cheekily the same time Morgead said it.

"Hey! You're not so bad yourself Mary-Lynnette."Morgead said. Mare got up and bowed in front of him and everyone laughed.

**"Well-I just' didn't want to be interrupted," he said with a gesture of dismissal. "How's the pain?"**

**"It's gone," Poppy said. "Isn't that weird? It didn't wake me up at all last night. And there's something else. I think I'm starting to-well, read people's thoughts."**

"That's because..." James started.

"We know James." Most of the people in the room said. James grinned sheepishly.

**James smiled slightly, just one corner of his mouth up. "That's good. 1 was worried-" He broke off and went to turn Poppy's CD player on. Plaintive Bantu wailing's emerged.**

**"I was worried you didn't get enough blood last night," James said quietly, resuming his seat. "You'll have to take more this time-and so will I."**

**Poppy felt something tremble inside her. Her revulsion was gone. She was still afraid, but that was only because of the consequences of what they were going to do. It wasn't just a way to get closer or to feed James. They were doing it to change Poppy.**

**"The only thing I don't understand is why you never bit me before." Her tone was light, but as she spoke the words, she realized that there was a serious question behind them.**

"Because you're my best friend and well...even though I didn't realised it before, I love you." James said. Poppy beamed at him.

"**I mean," she said slowly, "you did it with Michaela and Jacklyn, didn't you? And with other girls?"**

**He looked away but answered steadily. "I didn't exchange blood with them. But I fed on them, yes."**

**But not me." "No. How can I explain?" He looked up at her. "Poppy, taking blood can be a lot of different things-and the Elders don't want it to be anything but feeding.**

**They say all you should feel is the joy of the hunt. And that's all I ever have felt before." Poppy nodded, trying to feel satisfied with this. She didn't ask who the Elders were.**

"I'm one." Thierry said suddenly. Causing everyone to jump. They forgot he was there.

"But you don't look like an elder." Poppy said. Thierry raised an eyebrow at her.

"Right. You're a vamp." She mumbled.

**"Besides, it can be dangerous, " James said. "It can be done with hatred, and it can kill. Kill permanently, I mean."**

**Poppy was almost amused by this. "You wouldn't kill."**

**James stared at her. Outside, it was cloudy and the light in Poppy's bedroom was pale. It made James's face look pale, too, and his eyes silver.**

**"But I have," James said. His voice was flat and bleak. "I've killed without exchanging enough blood, so the person didn't come back as a vampire."**

"Who?"

James didn't answer them.

"Okay! That's it. Ash. Your turn." Quinn forcibly pushed the books into Ash's hands. Ash let it fall to the ground.

"Maybe I should read it." Delos said.

_REVIEW!_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the NW series. They all belong to L. J. Smith. So, for those of you who like Mare and Ash, check out my one shot about them called, **__Homecoming __**on my profile page. It's just a one shot about Ash and Mare meeting. Tell me what you think about it. Thanks for all the reviews! Enjoy!**_

****

**CHAPTER 7**

Delos picked up the book and began reading.

**Then you must have had a reason," Poppy said flatly. When he looked at her, she shrugged. "I know you." She knew him in a way she'd never known anyone.**

"You are so...tolerant. If it were me, I would be begging him to tell me." Mary-Lynette said. Maggie, Gillian, Rashel and Hannah all nodded in agreement.

**James looked away. "I didn't have a reason, but there were some ... extenuating circumstances. You could say I was set up. But I still have nightmares." He sounded so tired-so sad. It's a lonely world, full of secrets, Poppy thought. And he'd had to keep the biggest secret of all from everyone, including her.**

"Yes. I kept some pretty big secrets. You'll probably find out more soon." James said sadly.

**"It must have been awful for you," she said, hardly aware that she was speaking out loud. "I mean, all your life-holding this in. Not telling anybody. Pretending ..."**

"It's only hard if you live around humans. Like Delos there was pretty much cooped up in that little village. He didn't have to deal with humans. Unless for feeding." Quinn said. He had relaxed a lot since he got here. He wasn't at all acting like the snake he was made out to be. Wonder why, he thought randomly.

**"Poppy." He gave a shiver of repressed emotion. "Don't."**

**"Don't sympathize with you?"**

**He shook his head. "Nobody's 's ever understood before." After a pause he said, "How can you worry about me? With what you're facing?"**

"Because, she's naturally unselfish. We've only been here for a while and I know she's selfless." Maggie said.

"Yup, that's my Poppy." James said hugging Poppy, who smiled so wide it covered her small face. 'My Poppy. He said my Poppy.' She thought happily.

**I guess because -I care about you."**

**"And I guess that's why I didn't treat you like Michaela or Jacklyn," he said. Poppy looked at the sculpted planes of his face, at the wave of brown hair falling over his forehead like silk ... and held her breath. Say "I love you," she ordered mentally. Say it, you thickheaded male.**

Everyone laughed, Morgead the loudest.

"That's...haha...brilliant!"

"James! How could you be such a thickheaded male. Don't you have any manners." Jez jokingly chided James who pouted.

"Well, I guess you have to be a thickheaded male to be doing this stupid thing." Ash said suddenly. Everyone stopped laughing. James gave Ash a death glare, and Ash just glared back.

"What is your problem? Maybe you're just jealous..."

"Jealous! You think I'm jealous. Of what exactly am I jealous over?" Ash shouted. Everyone was getting on his nerves. Especially Quinn whose icy demeanour had miraculously disappeared, in its place was a hearty-carefree 18 year old. His cold heart had thawed. And Ash knew why. What was wrong with everyone? Was he the only sane person in this room.

"Oh I dunno, maybe because someone actually cares for me?"James shouted angrily, standing.

"Jamie." Poppy tried pulling him down. Ash looked at his cousin, he knew a challenge when he saw one.

"Ash! Stop it!" Mary-Lynette shouted. Ash froze. Both Ash's. Everyone stared at Mary-Lynette. Miraculously, Ash sat back down. Ignoring everyone.

"Er...I'll just...the book." Delos said awkwardly.

**But they weren't connected, and James didn't give the slightest sign of having heard. Instead he turned brisk and businesslike. "We'd better get started." He got up and drew the window curtains shut. "Sunlight inhibits all vampire powers," he said in a guest lecturer voice. **

"So teach, is it really true? I never knew!" Maggie said in mock surprise. Everyone sniggered. Delos sent her a smile. Maggie blushed and looked at her shoes. _Morgead, Quinn and Ash_ all smirked.

**Poppy took advantage of the pause to go to the CD player. The music had changed to a Dutch club song, which was fine for doing the Netherlands skippy dance to, but not very romantic. **

"No, it's very romantic. I love it!" Morgead said idiotically. Jez smacked his head, "idiot."

**She punched a button and a velvety Portuguese lament began.**

"Nice." Maggie said approvingly.

"You like Portuguese laments." Delos asked her. Maggie blinked.

"No, I just meant...it's more romantic. That's all." She said embarrassedly.

"Oh. Right." Delos said equally embarrassed.

"Delos...the book." Quinn told him holding back a snigger at Delos and Maggie's behaviour.

"Wha-oh, yeah! The book.."

**Then she twitched the sheer hangings around the bed dosed. When she sat down again, she and James were in their own little world, dim and secluded, enclosed in misty eggshell white.**

"You know, if someone walked in on you they'd be very curious at what you two are doing." Mary-Lynette pointed out. This made most of the people in the room frown.

**"I'm ready," she said softly, and James leaned in close to her. Even in the semidarkness Poppy felt mesmerized by his eyes. They were like windows to some other place, someplace distant and magical. The Night World, she thought, and tilted her chin back as James took her in his arms.**

**This time the double sting at her neck hurt good. But best was when James's mind touched hers. The feeling of oneness, of suddenly being whole-it spread through her like starshine. Once again she had the sense that they were melting together, dissolving and merging everywhere they touched. She could feel her own pulse echoing through him. Closer, closer ... and then she felt a pulling-back.**

**James? What's wrong?**

"Why are you pulling away from me." Poppy said sadly.

"Maybe because...you have no choice but to want me. It's the blood bond...it..." James started when Delos (rudely) interrupted.

"The book will explain." Delos said quickly.

**Nothing, he told her, but Poppy could sense that it wasn't quite true. He was trying to weaken the growing bond between them ... but why? Poppy, I just don't want to force you into anything. What we're feeling is-artificial...**

**Artificial? It was the realest thing that she'd ever experienced. Realer than real. In the midst of joy, Poppy felt a surge of hurt anger at James. I don't mean it like that, he said, and there was desperation in the thought. It's just that you can't resist the blood-bond. You couldn't resist it if you hated me. It isn't fair...**

"But I don't hate you. I really like you. Can't you tell that from the whole mind-reading-watcha-call-it- thingy." Poppy asked James curiously.

"Well, I wouldn't be able to tell because of the blood bond and stuff." James said smiling at Poppy.

**Poppy didn't care about fair. If you can't resist it, why are you trying? She asked him triumphantly. **

Everyone laughed.

"You have a point there." James said laughingly.

"Yeah, she has a brilliant point. I officially accept you as a friend now." Morgead said giving Poppy a salute.

"Well, I'm honoured." Poppy said mockingly bowing in front of Morgead. Everyone laughed twice as hard.

**She heard something like mental laughter, and then they were both clinging together as a wave of pure emotion swept them.**

**The blood-bond, Poppy thought when James raised his head at last. It doesn't matter if he won't say he loves me-we're bonded now. Nothing can change that. And in a moment or so she would seal that bond by taking his blood. Try and resist that, she thought, and was startled when James laughed softly. "Reading my mind again?"**

"**Not exactly. You're projecting-and you're very good at it. You're going to be strong telepath." Interesting . . . but right now Poppy didn't feel strong. She suddenly felt kitten-weak. Limp as a wilting flower. She needed ...**

"Blood." Poppy said. The vampires (lamias are included.) all nodded.

**"I know," James whispered. Still supporting her, he started to lift one wrist to his mouth. Poppy stopped him with a restraining hand.**

**"James? How many times do we have to do this before I-change?"**

"Once more, I think." James said to no one in particular.

**"Once more, I think," James said quietly.**

"Yeah, we heard you the first time James." Mary-Lynette said teasingly. Ash looked away, for some reason, everytime Mary-Lynette talked to the other guys, he'd feel...it doesn't matter. What does matter is that James we'll find himself in trouble. He had to be ready...

**"I took a lot this time, and I want you to do the same. And the next time we do it ..." I'll die, Poppy thought. Well, at least I know how long I have left as a human. James's lips slid back to reveal long, delicate fangs, and he struck at his own wrist. There was something snakelike in the motion. Blood welled up, the color of syrup in a can of cherry preserves.**

"I love cherry preserves." Hannah said suddenly.

"I _used_ to like it too, until they used it as a metaphor for blood." Maggie said.

**Just as Poppy was leaning forward, lips parted, there was a knock at the door. Poppy and James froze guiltily. The knock came again. In her muddled and weakened state, Poppy couldn't seem**

**to make herself move. The only thought that resounded in her brain was Oh, please. Please don't let it be ... The door opened.**

"Shit." Poppy and nearly all the occupants said.

**Phil.**

"Really! Of all the people to come in, it had to be Phil." Poppy said.

"Wait, didn't James promise Phil to stay away from Poppy." Rashel said frowning. James looked horrified.

**Phillip was already speaking as he poked his head in. "Poppy, are you awake? Mom says-" He broke off abruptly, then lunged for the light switch on the wall. Suddenly the room was illuminated.**

Everyone tensed.

**Oh, terrific, Poppy thought in frustration. Phil was peering through the filmy draperies around the bed. Poppy peered back at him.**

**"What is going-on?" he said in a voice that would have gotten him the lead role in The Ten Commandments. **

"That was a pretty cool show." Eric and David said. Everyone glared at them.

**And then, before Poppy could gather enough wits to answer, he leaned in and grabbed James by the arm.**

**"Phil, don't," Poppy said. "Phil, you idiot ..."**

**"We had a deal," Phil snarled at James. "And you broke it." James was gripping Phil's arms now, as urgently as Phil was grasping him. Poppy had the dismayed feeling that they were going to start head-butting each other. Oh, Lord, if she could only think straight. She felt so brainless.**

"See, that's why you should always listen to what your enemy is saying." Keller and Jez said. Poppy and James gave them a death glare each.

**"You've got the wrong idea," James said to Phil through clenched teeth.**

**"The wrong idea? I come in here and find the two of you in bed, with all the curtains drawn, and you're telling me I've got the wrong idea?"**

"On the bed. We're on the bed, not in it." Poppy said.

**"On the bed, Poppy interjected.**

Everyone gave slight chuckles.

**Phil ignored her. James shook Phil. He did it quite easily and with an economy of movement, but Phil's head snapped back and forth. Poppy realized that James was not at his most rational right now. She remembered the metal chair leg and decided it was time to intervene.**

"Yes, you should definitely stop them." Thea said.

"Before something happens." Gillian finished. They both smiled at each other.

"**Let go," she said, reaching in between the two boys to grab for hands. Anybody's hands. "Come on, you guys!" And then, desperately, "Phil, I know you don't understand, but James is trying to help me-"**

**"Help you? I don't think so." And then to James: "Look at her. Can't you see that this stupid pretending is making her sicker? Every time I find her with you, she's white as a sheet. You're just making things worse."**

"He's worried, that's all. You're his sister, it's a normal reaction. Miles can be like that too sometimes." Maggie said, thinking of her brother.

"You have a brother?" Delos asked.

"Yeah, he's great...he's the best." Maggie said. She was missing her brother more the longer she stayed in the room.

"Really, what does he-"

"Guys! The book." Quinn said pointedly. They both blush.

**"You don't know anything about it," James snarled in Phil's face. But Poppy was still processing something several sentences back.**

**"Stupid? Pretending?" she said. Her voice wasn't very loud but everything stopped.**

"Oh goddess, I forgot that the book you doesn't know." Thea said. Everyone frowned. Bracing for the outburst that was bound to happen.

**Both boys looked at her. Everyone made mistakes then. Later, Poppy would realize that if any of them had kept their heads, what happened next could have been avoided. But none of them did.**

**"I'm sorry," Phil said to Poppy. "I didn't want to tell you-"**

**"Shut up, " James said savagely.**

**"But I have to. This-jerk-is just playing with you. He admitted it to me. He said he felt sorry for you, and he thinks that pretending he likes you makes you feel better. He's got an ego that would fill Dodger Stadium."**

"Oh Phil."

**"Pretending?" Poppy said again, sitting back. There was a buzzing in her head and an eruption gathering in her chest.**

**"Poppy, he's crazy," James said. "Listen-"**

**But Poppy wasn't listening. The problem was that she could feel how sorry Phil was. It was much more convincing than anger. And Phillip, honest, straight forward, trustworthy Phillip, almost never lied. He wasn't lying now. Which meant ... that James must be. Eruption time.**

**"You . . ." she whispered to James.,"You . . ." She couldn't think of a swear word bad enough. Some how she felt more hurt, more betrayed than she had ever felt before. She had thought she knew James; she had trusted him absolutely. Which made the betrayal all the worse. "So it was all pretending? Is that it?"**

"**No." James said. **

"I really hope I won't listen to Phil right now."

**Some inner voice was telling her to hold on and think. That she was in no state to make crucial decisions. But she was also in no state to listen to inner voices. Her own anger kept her from deciding if she had any good reason to be angry.**

"Please listen to your inner voice." Morgead said, Quinn nodded in agreement. Everyone stared at them both.

"What, if James leaves, Poppy dies. And we both like her." Morgead said simply, shrugging.

**"You just felt sorry for me?" she whispered, and suddenly all the fury and grief that she'd been suppressing for the last day and a half flooded out. She was blind with pain, and nothing mattered except making James hurt as much as she hurt.**

**James was breathing hard, speaking rapidly. "Poppy-this is why I didn't want Phil to know-"**

"Don't say that you idiot! She'll think you were pretending." Rashel said angrily.

"Not good." Keller said.

"No duh Sherlock." Quinn said sarcastically.

"Let's just what happens okay." Poppy said. Everyone nodded.

**"And no wonder," Poppy raged. "And no wonder you wouldn't say you loved me," she went on, not even caring that Phillip was listening. "And no won der you would do all that other stuff, but you never even kissed me. Well, I don't want your pity-"**

**"What other stuff?. All what other stuff?" Phil shouted. "I'm gonna kill you, Rasmussen!"**

"I don know whether Phil is incredibly brave or incredibly stupid." Quinn said in a deadpan voice.

"Really, I was thinking whether he was a great brother or an interfering one." Morgead said jokingly.

"What are you talking 'bout? He's a great brother!" Maggie said laughing. Everyone laughed, thankful for the tension breaker.

**He tore free of James and swung at him. James ducked so that the fist just grazed his hair. Phil swung again and James twisted sideways and grabbed him from behind in a headlock.**

"Don't hurt him!"

"What, he tried to punch me!" James said defending himself.

**Poppy heard running footsteps in the hall. "What's happening?" her mother gasped in dismay, regarding the scene in Poppy's bedroom. At almost the same instant Cliff appeared behind Poppy's mother. "What's all the shouting?" he asked, his jaw particularly square.**

**"You're the one who's putting her in danger," James was snarling in Phillip's ear. "Right now." He looked feral. Savage. Inhuman.**

"Please be careful. James, I swear, if you hurt him..." Poppy said with such menace that James gulped, he was seriously hoping his book self would be smart and not hurt Phil. No matter how much he wanted too.

**"Let go of my brother!" Poppy yelled. All at once her eyes were swimming with tears.**

"Poppy, don't cry." James said soothingly to the book.

"You do know you're talking to a book that can't hear you." Poppy said looking at James as if she feared for his sanity.

**"Oh, my God-darling," her mother said. In two steps she was beside the bed and holding Poppy. "You boys get out of here."**

**The savagery drained out of James's expression, and he loosened his hold on Phillip. "Look, I'm sorry. I have to stay. Poppy ..."**

"You need the blood. You'll die if you don't get it." Quinn said.

"Gee...I didn't know that." Rashel said teasingly at Quinn who blushed.

**Phillip slammed an elbow into his stomach. It might not have hurt James as much as it would a human, but Poppy saw the fury sweep over his face as he straightened from doubling up. He lifted Phil off his feet and threw him headfirst in the general direction of Poppy's dresser. Poppy's mother let out a cry. Cliff jumped in between Phil and James.**

"Phil! James! You threw my brother...you might've...kill him...James!"Poppy ranted. James cowered behind Quinn who was laughing with Morgead. Ash had decided to stay as far away as possible.

**"That's enough!" he roared. Then, to Phil: "Are you all right?" And to James: "What's this all about?" Phil was rubbing his head dazedly. James said nothing. Poppy couldn't speak.**

**"All right, it doesn't matter," Cliff said. "I guess everybody's a little jumpy right now. But you'd better go on home, James."**

**James looked at Poppy. Poppy, throbbing all over like an aching tooth, turned her back on him. She burrowed into her mother's embrace.**

**"I'll be back," James said quietly. It might have been meant as a promise, but it sounded like a threat.**

**"Not for a while, you won't," Cliff said in a military command voice. Gazing over her mother's arm, Poppy could see that there was blood on Phillip's blond hair. "I think everybody needs a cooling-off period. Now, come on, move."**

"I seriously hope you have a plan James. You'll need it." Keller said gravely.

**He led James out. Poppy sniffled and shivered, trying to ignore both the waves of giddiness that swept over her and the agitated murmuring of all the voices in her head. The stereo went on blasting out mad core stomping music from England. In the next two days James called eight times. Poppy actually picked up the phone the first time. It was after midnight when her private line rang, and she responded automatically, still half-asleep.**

"No fair! I'm half awake, that means I can't be angry at you even if I wanted to." Poppy pouted.

**"Poppy, don't hang up," James said. Poppy hung up. A moment later the phone rang again. "Poppy, if you don't want to die, you've got to listen to me."**

**"That's blackmail. You're sick, " Poppy said, clutching the handset. Her tongue felt thick and her head ached.**

"Poppy." James begged softly. She cuddled at James chest.

**"It's just the truth. Poppy, listen. You didn't take any blood today. I weakened you, and you didn't get anything in exchange. And that could kill you." Poppy heard the words, but they didn't seem real. She found herself ignoring them, retreating into a foggy state where thought was impossible. "I don't care."**

"Yes I do. I do care."

"Please listen to me Poppy." James begged Poppy.

"I can't control what book me does."

**"You do care, and if you could think, you'd know that. It's the change that's doing this. You're completely messed up mentally. You're too paranoid and illogical and crazy to know you're paranoid and illogical and crazy."**

**It was suspiciously like what Poppy had realized earlier. She was aware, dimly, that she was acting the way Marissa Schaffer had after drinking a six pack of beer at Jan Nedjar's New Year's party. Making a ranting fool of herself. But she couldn't seem to stop.**

**"I just want to know one thing," she said. "Is it true that you said that stuff to Phillip?"**

"Well, he did say those stuff to Phil. He just didn't mean it." Quinn said practically.

**She heard James let his breath out. "It's true that I said it. But what I said wasn't true. It was just to get him off my back."**

**By now Poppy was too upset to even want to calm down. "Why should I believe somebody whose whole life is a lie?" she said, and hung up again as the first tears spilled.**

James looked devastated at that. Poppy was saying what he always thought, but to here it out loud...

"I'm sorry Jamie."

"No, it wasn't your fault. It's true-sort of-anyway. I should be sorry. Sorry that I lied to Phil."

"It'll work out."

"You love birds done?" Delos asked them sniggering. So were most of the boys. They both blush and James nodded.

**All the next day she stayed in her state of foggy denial. Nothing seemed real, not the fight with James, not James's warning, and not her illness. Especially not her illness. Her mind found a way to accept the special treatment she was getting from everyone without dwelling on the reason for the treatment.**

**She even managed to disregard her mother's whispered comments to Phil about how she was going downhill so fast. How poor Poppy was getting pale, getting weak, getting worse. And only Poppy knew that she could now hear conversations held in the hallway as clearly as if they were in her own room.**

**All her senses were sharpened, even as her mind was dulled. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she was startled by how white she was, her skin translucent as candle wax. Her eyes so green and fierce that they burned.**

**The other six times James called, Poppy's mother told him Poppy was resting. Cliff fixed the broken trim on Poppy's dresser. "Who would have thought the kid was that strong?" he said.**

"I knew." Said all the night-worlders.

"Yeah well, I didn't know he was a vamp-lamia-okay. Cut me some slack." Poppy said.

**James flipped his cellular phone shut and banged a fist on the Integra's dashboard. It was Thursday afternoon. I love you. That's what he should have said to Poppy. And now it was too late , she wouldn't even talk to him.**

**Why hadn't he said it? His reasons seemed stupid now. So he hadn't taken advantage of Poppy's innocence and gratitude ... well, bravo. All he'd done was tap her veins and break her heart. All he'd done was hasten her death.**

"No you didn't. You helped me. It's not your fault."

**But there wasn't time to think about it now. Right now he had a masquerade to attend.**

**He got out of the car and gave his windbreaker a twitch as he walked toward the sprawling ranch style house. He unlocked and opened the door without calling to announce his presence. He**

**didn't need to announce it; his mother would sense him.**

**Inside, it was all cathedral ceilings and fashionably bare walls. The one oddity was that every one of the many skylights was covered with elegant custom made drapes. This made the interior seem spacious but dim. Almost cavernous.**

**"James," his mother said, coming from the back wing. She had jet-black hair with a sheen like lacquer and a perfect figure that was emphasized rather than disguised by her silver-and-gold embroidered wrap. Her eyes were cool gray and heavily lashed, like James's. She kissed the air beside his cheek.**

"I always thought you mum was cool. Now, not so much." Poppy said

**"I got your message," James said. "What do you want?"**

**"I'd really rather wait until your father gets home..."**

**"Mom, I'm sorry, but I'm in a hurry. I've got things to do-I haven't even fed today."**

"You know that's very bad. You might accidentally attack someone" Rowan said. Everyone paid little to no attention to her.

**"It shows," his mother said. She regarded him for a moment without blinking. Then she sighed, turning toward the living room. "At least, let's sit down... You've been a little agitated, haven't you, these last few days?"**

**James sat on the crimson-dyed suede couch. **

"Why is that. Red I mean." Poppy asked pointlessly.

"I dunno. Maybe it's to hide the blood spots that spill." Maggie said. No one noticed that they had this conversation.

**Now was the test of his acting ability. If he could get through the next minute without his mother sensing the truth, he'd be home free.**

**"I'm sure Dad told you why," he said evenly.**

**"Yes. Little Poppy. It's very sad, isn't it?" The shade of the single treelike floor lamp was deep red, and ruby light fell across half his mother's face.**

"Your mum really likes red." Mary-Lynette said

"Yes. Yes she does." James answered.

**"I was upset at first, but I'm pretty much over it now," James said. He kept his voice dull and concentrated on sending nothing-nothing-through his aura. He could feel his mother lightly probing the edges of his mind. Like an insect gently caressing with an antenna, or a snake tasting the air with its black forked tongue.**

**"I'm surprised" his mother said. "1 thought you liked her."**

**"I did. But, after all, they're not really people, are they?" He considered a moment, then said, "It's sort of like losing a pet. I guess I'll just have to find another one."**

"Gee...I never knew I was just a pet to you." Poppy said teasingly.

"What-Poppy, you know that's not true...I just said that"

"Jamie. I know." Poppy said, grabbing his head in her hands.

**It was a bold move, quoting the party line. James willed every muscle to stay relaxed as he felt the thought-tendrils tighten suddenly, coiling around him, looking for a chink in his armor. He thought very hard-about Michaela Vasquez. Trying to project just the right amount of negligent fondness. It worked. The probing tendrils slipped away from his mind, and his mother**

**settled back gracefully and smiled.**

"Nice job. Use telepathy as a weapon. I'm proud of you Rasmussen." Morgead said approvingly, Keller and Rashel nodded in agreement,

"Aw...my cousin is all grown up." Jez said pretending to wipe an imaginary tear of her face. Everyone laughed at their interaction.

**"I'm glad you're taking it so well. But if you ever feel that you'd like to talk to someone ... your father knows some very good therapists." Vampire therapists, she meant. To screw his head on straight about how humans were just for feeding on.**

**"I know you want to avoid trouble as much as I do," she added. "It reflects on the family, you see."**

**"Sure," James said, and shrugged. "I've got to go now. Tell Dad I said hi, okay?" He kissed the air beside her cheek.**

**"Oh, by the way," she said as he turned toward the door. "Your cousin Ash will be coming next week. I think he'd like to stay with you at the apartment-and I'm sure you'd like some company there." Over my unbreathing body, James thought. He'd forgotten all about Ash's threat to visit. But now wasn't the time to argue. He walked out feeling like a juggler with too many balls in the air.**

"You better leave Poppy alone Ash, or I swear, I will kill you." James said menacingly.

"Yeah. Do your best." Ash said standing. Before James had a chance to get a punch on him, Ash (the future) stood up.

"That's enough. James. Sit! Both of you." James sat down, but the past Ash didn't make a move.

"Sit down."

"No. Make me." Both Ash's glared at each other. Both waiting for the right time. And they strike. Both were really good, dodging and punching just as the other was doing the opposite.

"Ten bucks says future boy wins." Morgead whispered to Quinn.

"Nah, past Ash'll win. You're on." Quinn whispered back.

"You...idiot...stop...it..." _Ash_ was saying as he threw punch after punch at his past self who snarled in response. Ash threw his future self to a shelf of books that was located in a small corner. The shelf smashed into pieces. _Ash_ lay there unmoving.

"No!" Mary-Lynette screamed and ran after the future Ash. The past just looked, breathing heavily.

"Are you all right?" she asked, tears running quietly down her face. He opened his eyes.

"Mary-Lynette..." he whispered ever so softly, "Don't cry." She sniffed. Ash left the room. No one followed him.

"Should I..." Delos asked awkwardly. _Ash_ got up, his hair matted with blood, nodded.

"He's changed so much." Rowan said.

"I know." _Ash_ said laughing.

**Back in his car he picked up the cellular phone, hesitated, then snapped it shut without turning it on. Calling wasn't any good. It was time to change his strategy. All right, then. No more half measures. A serious offensive-aimed where it would do the most good.**

**He thought for a few minutes, then drove to McDonnell Drive, parking just a few houses away from where Poppy lived. And then he waited. He was prepared to sit there all night if necessary, but he didn't have to. Just around sunset the garage door opened and a white Volkswagen Jetta backed out. James saw a blond head in the driver's seat Hi, Phil. Nice to see you. When the Jetta pulled away, he followed it.**

"Try not to hurt him." Poppy said to James, who nodded.

"Should we...call Ash back." Gillian and Hannah asked together.

"No, give him some time. He'll be back." Quinn said.

"I'll read!" Maggie said grabbing the book out of Delos's hand.

"Okay." He chuckled.

_**Remember, check out Homecoming, my new one shot about Ash and Mare. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! **_

_**Review!**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the Night World series. They belong to L. J. Smith. Thanks for all the reviews!**_

"Right. Chapter 8." Maggie said.

**When the Jetta turned into the parking lot of a 7-Eleven, James smiled. There was a nice isolated area behind the store, and it was getting dark. He drove his own car around back, then got out to watch the store entrance.**

"James...What are you going to do?" Poppy asked James with narrowed eyes. James just gave her a shrugged and an 'I have no freaking clue' look.

**When Phil came out with a bag, he sprang on him from behind. Phil yelled and fought, dropping the bag. It didn't matter. The sun had gone down and James's power was at full strength.**

**He dragged Phil to the back of the store and put him facing the wall beside a Dumpster. The classic police frisking position.**

"James..." Poppy said warningly. Her green eyes flashing. James gulped and silently hoped that his book self was smart.

**"I'm going to let go now," he said. "Don't try to run away. That would be a mistake."**

**Phil went tense and motionless at the sound of his voice. "I don't want to run away. I want to smash your face in, Rasmussen."**

**"Go ahead and try." James was going to add, Make my night, but he reconsidered. He let go of Phil, who turned around and regarded him with utter loathing.**

"What is it with boys and their constant need to fight?" Rashel said shaking her head.

"I know right." Keller and most of the girls agreed.

**"What's the matter? Run out of girls to jump?" he said, breathing hard. James gritted his teeth. Trading insults wasn't going to do any good, but he could already tell it was going to be hard to keep his temper. Phil had that effect on him. "I didn't bring you out here to fight. I brought you to ask you something. Do you care about Poppy?"**

"Of course he does, idiot. She's his twin." Quinn said to James sneering. The girls all glared at him. Quinn looked down, avoiding all their glares.

**Phil said, "I'll take stupid questions for five hundred, Alex," and loosened his shoulder as if getting ready for a punch.**

**"Because if you do, you'll get her to talk to me. You were the one who convinced her not to see me, and now you've got to convince her that she has to see me."**

"Dude, the guy hates you. What honestly makes you think he'll let you get within an inch close to his currently dying sister?" Eric and Morgead said with questioning looks.

"Hey, I'd like to see you try having your soulmate dying while you can't do a bloody thing." James shot back. This got all the guys to shut up. Ash glared at James for even suggesting he had a soulmate, but his eyes fell on Mary-Lynnette who still hadn't finish attending to his future self. Ash felt an ache in his chest, a desire to be in _his_ place. He shook that feeling away and continued listening to Maggie read.

**Phil looked around the parking lot, as if calling for somebody to witness this insanity. James spoke slowly and dearly, enunciating each word. "There is something I can do to help her."**

**"Because you're Don Juan, right? You're gonna heal her with your love." The words were flippant, but Phil's voice was shaky with sheer hatred. Not just hatred for James, but for a universe that would give Poppy cancer.**

"Awww...he is so sweet." The girls all cooed.

"Awww..." the boys all sniggered, earning death glares from the girls.

**"No. You've got it completely wrong. Look, you think I was making out with her, or trifling with her affections or whatever. That's not what was going on at all. I let you think that because I was **

**tired of getting the third degree from you-and because I didn't want you to know what we were doing."**

"Yup, that's what every brother wants to here. I would kill a guy who said that to me about Roz." Eric said abruptly.

"Roz?" Thea asked.

"Yeah, Rosamund, my sister." Eric said shyly at Thea. They both looked away.

"Aw..." Morgead sniggered to Quinn.

**"Sure, sure," Phil said in a voice filled with equal measures of sarcasm and contempt. "So what were you doing? Drugs?"**

**James had learned something from his first encounter with Poppy in the hospital. Show and tell should be done in that order. This time he didn't say anything; he just grabbed Phil by the hair and jerked his head back.**

"Be careful!" Poppy shrieked at James. Who nodded quickly.

**There was only a single light behind the store, but it was enough to give Phil a good view of the bared fangs looming over him. And it was more than enough for James, with his night vision, to see Phil lip's green eyes dilate as he stared. Phillip yelled, then went limp.**

**Not with fear, James knew. He wasn't a coward. With the shock of disbelief turning to belief.**

**Phillip swore. "You're a ..."**

**"Right." James let him go.**

"How do you know what he was going to say? He could've said werewolves." Ash said, joining in for the first time.

"Tell me, why do you guys hate Werewolves so much?" Mary-Lynnette demanded looking at Ash. They both stared at each other. This caused a few to started narrowing their eyes.

"It's just...they have a..." Ash was mumbling, unable to get a full sentence. This caused more eye narrowing.

"Let's just continue." Maggie said.

**Phil almost lost his balance. He grabbed at the Dumpster for support. "I don't believe it."**

**"Yes, you do," James said. He hadn't retracted his fangs, and he knew that his eyes were shining silver. Phil had to believe it with James standing right in front of him.**

**Phil apparently had the same idea. He was staring at James as if he wanted to look away, but couldn't. The colour had drained out of his face, and he kept swallowing as if he were going to be sick.**

**"God," he said finally. "I knew there was something wrong with you. Weird wrong. I could never figure out why you gave me the creeps. So this is it."**

**I disgust him, James realized. It's not just hatred anymore. He thinks I'm less than human. It didn't augur well for the rest of James's plan.**

"You're not. Don't think like that." Poppy was saying. James pulled her closer.

**"Now do you understand how I can help Poppy?"**

**Phil shook his head slowly. He was leaning against the wall, one hand still on the Dumpster.**

**James felt impatience rise in his chest. "Poppy has a disease. Vampires don't get diseases. Do you need a road map?" Phillip's expression said he did.**

"You know, he's usually so much faster at understanding and solving things." Poppy said absent-mindedly.

**"If," James said through his teeth, "I exchange enough blood with Poppy to turn her into a vampire, she won't have cancer anymore. Every cell in her body will change and she'll end up a perfect specimen: flawless, disease-free. She'll have powers that humans don't even dream of. And, incidentally, she'll be immortal."**

**There was a long, long silence as James watched this sink in with Phillip. Phil's thoughts were too jumbled and kaleidoscopic for James to make anything of them, but Phil's eyes got wider and his face more ashen.**

"It must be so hard on him. To have your twin slowly die when you're perfectly healthy. He must feel so awful." Hannah said frowning. Thierry agreed. The others just looked at their shoes soberly.

**At last Phil said, "You can't do that to her."**

**It was the way he said it. Not as if he were protesting an idea because it was too radical, too new. Not the knee-jerk overreaction that Poppy had had. He said it with absolute conviction and utmost horror. As if James were threatening to steal Poppy's soul.**

"You know...in a way you are stealing her soul." Gillian said. This earned her a few annoyed looks.

**"It's the only way to save her life," James said.**

**Phil shook his head slowly again, eyes huge and trancelike. "No. No. She wouldn't want it. Not at that cost."**

**"What cost?" James was more than impatient now, he was defensive and exasperated. If he'd realized that this was going to turn into a philosophical debate, he would have picked somewhere less public. As it was, he had to keep all his senses on the alert for possible intruders.**

"Yeah, what cost?" Morgead and Quinn asked.

"It's different, for you guys, life just means sucking the blood out of someone. To Phil, it means actually fulfilling a life where you can enjoy it." Mary-Lynnette said. Everyone looked at her.

"That's a great way of putting it." _Ash_ said to Mary-Lynnette. Rowan looked at her brother's future self.

"Shall I..." Maggie said pointing to the book.

**Phil let go of the Dumpster and stood on his own two feet. There was fear mixed with the horror in his eyes, but he faced James squarely.**

**"It's just-there are some things that humans think are more important than just staying alive," he said. "You'll find that out."**

**I don't believe this, James thought. He sounds like a junior space captain talking to the alien invaders in a B movie. You won't find Earth people quite the easy mark you imagine.**

"You know, he really liked those movies when he was a kid." Poppy said randomly.

"Explains this then." Rashel said.

**Aloud, he said, "Are you nuts? Look, Phil, I was born in San Francisco. I'm not some bug-eyed monster from Alpha Centauri. I eat Wheaties for breakfast."**

**"And what do you eat for a midnight snack?" Phil asked, his green eyes somber and almost childlike. "Or are the fangs just for decoration?"**

"Wow, you totally walked into that." Quinn said.

**Walked right into that one, James's brain told him.**

"Didn't know you and James was so much alike." Rashel said teasingly. Quinn blushed and looked down.

**He looked away. "Okay. Touché. There are some differences. I never said I was a human. But I'm not some kind of-"**

**"If you're not a monster, then I don't know what is."**

**Don't kill him, James counseled himself frantically.**

"Yes, please don't kill him." Poppy said practically begging.

"I'm pretty sure Poppy wouldn't appreciate it if you killed her brother." David joked. Everyone laughed.

**You have to convince him.**

**"Phil, we're not like what you see at the movies. We're not all-powerful. We can't dematerialize through walls or travel through time, and we don't need to kill to feed. We're not evil, at least not all of us. We're not damned."**

**"You're unnatural," Phillip said softly, and James could feel that he meant it from his heart. "You're wrong. You shouldn't exist."**

"He's right. We shouldn't." James said bowing his head.

"No. Phil is being irrational. He's scared...angry. You are not a monster, Jamie. None of you are." Poppy said looking at all the night-worlders.

"Not even Ash. You pretend to be all high and mighty, but I bet inside, you hate yourself. How you act, how you do things." Poppy said. Ash glared at her.

"You don't know anything. You don't even know me." Ash said.

"Maybe...we'll see. Your future self seems a whole lot nicer that you." Poppy said shrugging. Maggie continued to read.

**"Because we're higher up on the food chain than you?"**

**"Because people weren't meant to ... feed ... on other people."**

**James didn't say that his people didn't think of Phillip's people as people. **

"I bet he'd love to hear that." Jez joked. Morgead pouted before saying, "I was going to say that."

"Well, tough luck." Jez said laughing. Morgead continued to pout.

**He said, "We only do what we have to do to survive. And Poppy's already agreed."**

**Phillip froze. "No. She wouldn't want to become like you."**

**"She wants to stay alive-or at least, she did, before she got mad at me. Now she's just irrational because she hasn't got enough of my blood in her to finish changing her. Thanks to you." He paused, then said deliberately, "Have you ever seen a three-week old corpse, Phil? Because that's what she's going to become if I don't get to her."**

"Is that really what happens?" Gillian asked.

"Yeah. You're in between. Not human, not vampire." Quinn answered.

**Phil's face twisted. He whirled around and slammed a fist into the metal side of the Dumpster. "Don't you think I know that? I've been living with that since Monday night."**

**James stood still, heart pounding. Feeling the anguish Phil was giving off and the pain of Phil's injured hand. It was several seconds before he was able to say calmly, "And you think that's better than what I can give her?"**

**"It's lousy. It stinks. But, yes, it's better than turning into something that hunts people. That uses people. That's why all the girlfriends, isn't it?"**

"See. This is the Phil I know. Always noticing little details like this." Poppy said.

**Once again, James couldn't answer right away. Phil's problem, he was realizing, was that Phil was far too smart for his own good. He thought too much. "Yeah. That's why all the girlfriends," he said at last, tiredly. Trying not to see this from Phil's point of view.**

**"Just tell me one thing, Rasmussen." Phillip straightened and looked him dead in the eye. "Did you"-he stopped and swallowed-"feed on Poppy before she got sick?"**

**"No."**

**Phil let out his breath. "That's good. Because if you had , I'd have killed you."**

**James believed him. He was much stronger than Phil, much faster, and he'd never been afraid of a human before. But just at that moment he had no doubt that Phil would somehow have found a way to do it.**

"He would've. I would." Eric said. He knew what it felt like to be an older brother. You're always afraid of what would happen to your sister.

"If you did that to Mark. I might've killed you." Mary-Lynnette said.

"Miles would be killing you at that instance." Maggie said.

"I'm not even going to ask who Mark and Miles are. We'll find out anyway." Jez said. The other's nodded in agreement.

**"Look, there's something you don't understand," he said. "Poppy did want this, and it's something we've already started. She's only just beginning to change; if she dies now, she won't become a vampire. But she might not die all the way, either. She could end up a walking corpse. A zombie, you know? Mindless. Body rotting, but immortal."**

**Phil's mouth quivered with revulsion. "You're just saying that to scare me."**

"No, I'm not."

"Wow, I really hope you help me. Phil, listen to James."

**James looked away. "I've seen it happen."**

"Really?" Poppy asked. James closed his eyes and nodded.

**"I don't believe you."**

**"I've seen it firsthand! " Dimly James realized he was yelling and that he'd grabbed Phil by the shirt front. He was out of control-and he didn't care. "I've seen it happen to somebody I cared about, all right?" And then, because Phil was still shaking his head: "I was only four years old and I had a nanny. All the rich kids in San Francisco have nannies. She was human."**

**"Let go," Phil muttered, pulling at James's wrist. He was breathing hard-he didn't want to hear this.**

"I don't want to hear this." Ash muttered softly. Jez-who was sitting next to him-hit him at the back of his head.

"Oww." Ash complained to Jez. "Shut up," she said.

**"I was crazy about her. She gave me everything my mom didn't. Love, attention-she was never too busy. I called her Miss Emma."**

"**Let go."**

**"But my parents thought I was too attached to her. So they took me on a little vacation-and they didn't let me feed. Not for three days. By the time they brought me back, I was starving. Then they sent Miss Emma up to put me to bed."**

"Shit. That's just wrong." Morgead said disgustedly. The others agreed.

**Phil had stopped fighting now. He stood with his head bowed and turned to one side so he wouldn't have to look at James. James threw his words at the averted face.**

**"I was only four. I couldn't stop myself. And the thing is, I wanted to. If you'd asked me who I'd rather have die, me or Miss Emma, I'd've said me. But when you're starving, you lose control. So I fed on her, and all the time I was crying and trying to stop. And when I finally could stop, I knew it was too late."**

Most of the girls were crying at this point. Poppy was weeping in James arms. Eric was awkwardly comforting Thea, Morgead was holding a silently crying Jez in his arms. Delos had taken the book from Maggie as tears streamed down her face while David comforted the small Gillian. Quinn and Galen had gotten up and went to comfort Rashel and Keller. Theirry was already holding Hannah. The only people left were Ash, Rowan and Mary-Lynnette. Mary-Lynnette though was in _Ash's _arm Rowan got up to her brother.

"Go...help her."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ash said between his teeth. Watching his future self comfort Mary-Lynnette. Rowan sighed, thinking how stubborn Ash could be sometimes.

"I'll...sniff...continue now...sniff" Maggie said taking the book from Delos again.

**There was a pause. James suddenly realized that his fingers were locked in an agonizing cramp. He let go of Phil's shirt slowly. Phil said nothing.**

**"She was just lying there on the floor. I thought, wait, if I give her my own blood she'll be a vampire, and everything will be okay." He wasn't yelling any more. He wasn't even really speaking to Phillip, but staring out into the dark parking lot. "So I cut myself and let the blood run into her mouth. She swallowed some of it before my parents came up and stopped me. But not enough."**

**A longer pause-and James remembered why he was telling the story. He looked at Phillip. "She died that night but not all the way. The two different kinds of blood were**

**fighting inside her. So by morning she was walking around again-but she wasn't Miss Emma anymore. She drooled and her skin was gray and her eyes were flat like a corpse's. And when she started to-rot-my dad took her out to Inverness and buried her. He killed her first." Bile rose in James's throat and he added almost in a whisper, "I hope he killed her first."**

"Oh god."

"That's just..."

"Ugh..."

Everyone was disgusted at this point. Disgusted to the point of speechless.

**Phil slowly turned around to look at him. For the first time that evening, there was something other than horror and fear in his face. Something like pity, James thought. James took a deep breath. After thirteen years of silence he'd finally told the story to Phillip North, of all people. But it was no good wondering about the absurdity. He had a point to drive home.**

**"So take my advice. If you don't convince Poppy to see me, make sure they don't do an autopsy on her. You don't want her walking around without her internal organs. And have a wooden stake ready for the time when you can't stand to look at her anymore."**

"You don't have to be that cold." Poppy said pouting. Everyone laughed, glad for the break from the sad atmosphere.

**The pity was gone from Phil's eyes. His mouth was a hard, trembling line. "We won't let her turn into ... some kind of half alive abomination," he said.**

**"Or a vampire, either. I'm sorry about what happened to your Miss Emma, but it doesn't change anything."**

**"Poppy should be the one to decide-"**

**But Phillip had reached his limit, and now he was simply shaking his head. "Just keep away from my sister," he said. "That's all I want. If you do, I'll leave you alone. And if you don't-"**

**"What?"**

**"I'm going to tell everybody in El Camino what you are. I'm going to call the police and the mayor and I'm going to stand in the middle of the street and yell it."**

**James felt his hands go icy cold. What Phil didn't realize was that he'd just made it James's duty to kill him. It wasn't just that any human who stumbled on Night World secrets had to die, but that one actively threatening to tell about the Night World had to die immediately, no questions asked, no mercy given.**

"Please don't kill him If you do, I'd hate you forever." Poppy told James.

"Forever?" James questioned.

"Well, maybe not forever. Just...you know. The cold shoulder...for a while." Poppy amended. Everyone laughed uproariously.

**Suddenly James was so tired he couldn't see straight. "Get out of here, Phil," he said in a voice drained of emotion and vitality both. "Now. And if you really want to protect Poppy, you won't tell anybody anything. Because they'll trace it back and find out that Poppy knows the secrets, too. And then they'll kill her-after bringing her in for questioning. It won't be fun."**

**"Who're 'they'? Your parents?"**

**"The Night People. We're all around you, Phil. Anybody you know could be one-including the mayor. So keep your mouth shut." Phillip looked at him through narrowed eyes. Then he turned and walked to the front of the store.**

"Damn. I was so hoping to convince him."

"Too bad. You can try again next time." Poppy said as if James had just failed a test at school

**James couldn't remember when he'd felt so empty. Everything he'd done had turned out wrong. Poppy was now in more kinds of danger than he could count. And Phillip North thought he was unnatural and evil. What Phil didn't know was that most of the time James thought the same thing.**

**Phillip got halfway home before he remembered that he'd dropped the bag with Poppy's cranberry juice and wild cherry Popsicles. Poppy had hardly eaten in the last two days, and when she did get hungry, it was for something weird.**

" Wow, I wouldn't of done that." Eric said.

"Me neither." Most of the people said.

**No-something red, he realized as he paid for a second time at the 7-Eleven. He felt a sick lurch in his stomach. Everything she wanted lately was red and at least semiliquid. Did Poppy realize that herself?**

"Maybe not. You're not at your most rational right now." Quinn said the room in general.

"Thank you for that information." Poppy said to him. Quinn gave a mock bow. This caused some more laughter.

**He studied her when he went into her bedroom to give her a Popsicle. Poppy spent most of the time in bed now. And she was so pale and still.. Her green eyes were the only alive thing about**

**her. They dominated her face, glittering with an almost savage awareness. Cliff and Phil's mother were talking about getting round-the-clock nurses to be with her.**

**"Don't like the Popsicle?" Phil asked, dragging a chair to sit beside her bed.**

**Poppy was eyeing the thing with distaste. She took a tiny lick and grimaced. Phillip watched her. Another lick. Then she put the Popsicle into an empty plastic cup on her nightstand. "I don't know ... I just don't feel hungry," she said, leaning back against the pillows. "Sorry you had to go out for nothing."**

**"No problem." God, she looks sick, Phil thought. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"**

"Aw...he is so sweet. You have to introduce him to us." Thea said, "He might actually tame Blaise."

"Or Keller." Rowan said before breaking into giggles.

"Girls." The guys all rolled their eyes.

**Eyes shut, Poppy shook her head. A very small motion. "You're a good brother," she said distantly.**

**She used to be so alive, Phil thought. Dad called her Kilowatt or Eveready. She used to radiate energy.**

**Without in the least meaning to, he found himself saying, "I saw James Rasmussen today."**

**Poppy stiffened. Her hands on the bedspread formed not fists, but claws. "He'd better keep away from here!"**

"You really hate me." James said dejectedly.

"Hey, Like Quinn said. I'm not at my most rational." Poppy comforted.

**There was something subtly wrong about her reaction. Something not-Poppy. Poppy could get fierce, sure, but Phil had never heard that animal tone in her voice before. A picture flashed through Phil's mind. A creature from Night of the Living Dead, walking even though its intestines were spilling out. A living corpse like James's Miss Emma.**

**Was that really what would happen if Poppy died right now? Was she that much changed already?**

**"I'll scratch his eyes out if he comes around here," Poppy said, her fingers working on the spread like a cat kneading.**

"That doesn't even sound like me." Poppy said worriedly.

"It's okay, you're just hungry for blood." James said

"Wow, that sounded as if it came out of a horror movie." Quinn said.

"A lame one." David said.

"Can I continue now?" Maggie asked.

"Sure." Delos said.

**"Poppy-he told me the truth about what he really is."**

**Strangely, Poppy had no reaction. "He's scum," she said. "He's a reptile."**

**Something about her voice made Phillip's flesh creep. "And I told him you would never want to become something like that."**

**"I wouldn't," Poppy said shortly. "Not if it meant hanging around with him for eternity. I don't want to see him ever again."**

"Not rational." Poppy said in a sing-song voice. Everyone gave a slight chuckle.

**Phil stared at her for a long moment. Then he leaned back and shut his eyes, one thumb jammed against his temple where the ache was worst. Not just subtly wrong. He didn't want to believe it, but Poppy was strange.**

**Irrational. And now that he thought about it, she'd been getting stranger every hour since James had been thrown out.**

**So maybe she was in some eerie in-between state. Not a human and not a vampire. And not able to think dearly. Just as James had said. Poppy should be the one to decide. There was something he had to ask her.**

"Wow, Quinn, you really think like a human don't you." Jez joked.

"Well, I was human before this. Unlike most of you." Quinn joked back.

**"Poppy?" He waited until she looked at him, her green eyes large and unblinking. "When we talked, James said that you'd agreed to let him-change you. Before you got mad at him. Is that right?"**

**Poppy's eyebrows lifted. "I'm mad at him," she confirmed, as if this was the only part of the question she'd processed. "And you know why I like you? Because you've always hated him. Now we both hate him."**

**Phil thought for a moment, then spoke carefully. "Okay. But when you weren't mad at him, back then, did you want to turn into-what he is?"**

**Suddenly a gleam of rationality showed in Poppy's eyes. "I just didn't want to die, " she said. "I was so scared-and I wanted to live. If the doctors could do anything for me, I'd try that. But they can't." She was sitting up now, staring into space as if she saw something terrible there. "You don't know what it feels like to know you're going to die," she whispered.**

Everyone was quiet. Nobody knew what to say. The room was deathly quiet, it was creeping Poppy out.

"Maggie...could you just...continue."

"Wha-oh. Okay."

**Waves of chills washed over Phillip. No, he didn't know that, but he did know-he could suddenly picture vividly-what it was going to be like for him after Poppy died. How empty the world was going to be without her.**

**For a long time they both sat in silence.**

"Hey! That's how we reacted," Eric and David said. Everyone chuckled at their behaviour.

**Then Poppy fell back onto the pillows again. Phillip could see pastel blue smudges under her eyes, as if the conversation had exhausted her. "I don't think it matters," she said in a faint but frighteningly cheerful voice. "I'm not going to die anyway. Doctors don't know everything."**

"Oh. So you're in complete denial. That's how you dealing with it." Quinn said.

**So that's how she's dealing with it, Phillip thought. Total denial. **

"Quinn, stop thinking like my brother. It's creeping me out." Poppy said.

"Aw...I really liked thinking like him After all, great minds think alike." Quinn joked. Everyone laughed.

**He had all the information he needed, though. He had a clear view of the situation. And he knew what he had to do now.**

**"I'll leave so you can get some rest," he said to Poppy, and patted her hand. It felt very cool and fragile, full of tiny bones like a bird's wing. "See you later."**

**He slipped out of the house without telling anyone where he was going. Once on the road, he drove very fast. It only took ten minutes to reach the apartment**

**building. He'd never been to James's apartment before.**

"No freaking way." Poppy said.

"What?" Maggie asked. She didn't get an answer.

**James answered the door with a cold, "What are you doing here?"**

**"Can I come in? I've got something to say."**

**James stood back expressionlessly to let him in.**

**The place was roomy and bare. There was a single chair beside a very cluttered table, an equally cluttered desk, and a square unbeautiful couch. Card board boxes full of books and CDs were stacked in the corners. A door led to a Spartan bedroom. **

"Cool!" The boys shouted loudly.

"Boys." The girls muttered irriatated.

**"What do you want?"**

**"First of all, I have to explain something. I know you can't help being what you are-but I can't help how I feel about it, either. You can't change, and neither can I. I need you to understand that from the beginning."**

**James crossed his arms over his chest, wary and defiant. "You can skip the lecture."**

"Aw...but I really wanted to hear it." Quinn said. Morgead agreeing with him. Both of them pouted.

**"I just need to make sure you understand, okay?" **

**"What do you want, Phil?"**

**Phil swallowed. It took two or three tries before he could get the words out past the blockage of his pride.**

**"I want you to help my sister."**

"Whoa. You just got super prideful Phil to ask you for help. That is freaking amazing." Poppy said. Everyone chuckled.

"So...who's next?" Maggie asked.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the Night World Series. They belong to L. j. smith. Love her! Anyways...enjoy!**_

* * *

CHAPTER 9

"I want to read!" Eric and Quinn shouted at the same time. They glared at each other, Quinn's glare much colder than Eric's.

"Boys! There is a simple and mature way to solve this." Mary-Lynnette said, getting a coin out of her pocket.

"We flip a coin." She said simply, "So, head's or tails?"

"Heads!" Quinn shouted quicker than Eric. So Eric grudgingly got tails. Mary-Lynnette flipped the coin, it spinned and spinned and spinned. Fonally it stopped, on...tails.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes! In your face Quinn." Eric shouted manically. Quinn did the polite thing and stuck his toungue out.

Eric picked the book up, "All right, chapter 9."

**Poppy shifted on her bed. She was unhappy. It was a hot, restless unhappiness that seemed to swarm underneath her skin. Coming from her body instead of from her mind. If she hadn't been so weak, she would have gotten up and tried to run the feeling off. But she had spaghetti for muscles now and she wasn't running anywhere. Her mind was simply cloudy. She didn't try to think much anymore. She was happiest when she was asleep. But tonight she couldn't sleep. She could still taste the wild cherry Popsicle in the corners of her mouth. She would have tried to wash the taste away, but the thought of water made her feel vaguely nauseated. Water's no good. Not what I need. Poppy turned over and pressed her face into the pillow. She didn't know what she needed, but she knew she wasn't getting it. A soft sound came from the hallway. Footsteps. The footsteps of at least two people. It didn't sound like her mother and Cliff, and anyway they'd gone to was the lightest of knocks at her door, then a fan of light opened on the floor as the door cracked. **

"Why is she like that?" Maggie asked curiously.

"She's hungry-thirsty. Starving actually." James said, the lamias and vampires all frowned.

**Phil whispered, "Poppy, you asleep? Can I come in?"**

**To Poppy's slowly rising indignation, he was coming in, without waiting for an answer. And someone was with him. Not just someone. The one. The one who had hurt Poppy worst of all. The betrayer. James. Anger gave Poppy the strength to sit up. "Go away! I'll hurt you!" The most primitive and basic of warning-off messages. An animal reaction.**

**"Poppy, please let me talk to you," James said. And then something amazing happened. Even Poppy, in her befuddled state, recognized that it was amazing. **

**Phil said, "Please do it, Poppy. Just listen to him."**

**Phil siding with James? Poppy was too confused to protest as James came and knelt by her bedside.**

"I know! It's the end of the world!" Poppy said dramatically. Everyone laughed at her reaction.

**"Poppy, I know you're upset. And it's my fault; I made a mistake. I didn't want Phil to know what was really going on, and I told him I was just pretending to care for you. But it wasn't true."Poppy frowned.**

**"If you search your feelings, you'll know it's not true. You're turning into telepath, and I think you already have enough power to read me."Behind James, Phil stirred as if uneasy at the mention of telepathy. **

Thea frowned, both of them seem to have a louder mind than most people. Hmm...

**"I can tell you it's not true," he said, causing both Poppy and James to look at him in surprise. **

**"That's one thing I found out from talking to you," he added, speaking to James without looking at him. "You may be some kind of monster, but you really do care about Poppy. You're not trying to hurt her."**

"Awwww. Phil is such a sweet heart. Seriously, you have the sweetest brother." Mary-Lynnette said. The other girls all agreed while their soulmates (which they didn't know yet of course) looked jealously at each other.

**"Now you finally get it? After causing all this-?" James broke off and shook his head, turning back to Poppy. **

**"Poppy, concentrate. Feel what I'm feeling. Find the truth for yourself."I won't and you can't make me, Poppy thought. But the part of her that wanted to find out the truth was stronger than the irrational, angry part. Tentatively she reached for James-not with her hand, but with her mind. She couldn't have described to anyone how she did it. She just did it. And she found James's mind, diamond-bright and burning with intensity. It wasn't the same as being one with him, the way she had been when they shared blood. It was like looking at him from the outside, sensing his emotions from distance. But it was enough. The warmth and longing and protectiveness he had for her were all dear. So was the anguish: the pain he felt to know that she was hurting-, and that she hated him. Poppy's eyes filled. **

"Why are you crying?" James asked stupidly.

"Boys." Poppy muttered to the girls who agreed.

**"You really do care," she whispered. James's gray eyes met hers, and there was a look in them Poppy couldn't remember seeing before. **

**"There are two cardinal rules in the Night World," he said steadily. "One is not to tell humans that it exists. The other is not to fall in love with a human. I've broken both of them."Poppy was aware, vaguely, that Phillip was walking out of the room. The fan of light contracted as he half-shut the door behind him. James's face was partly in shadow.**

**"I could never tell you how I felt about you," James said. **

**"I couldn't even admit it to myself. Because it puts you in terrible danger. You can't imagine what kind of danger."**

**"And you, too," Poppy said. It was the first time she'd really thought about this. Now the idea emerged from her muddled consciousness like a bubble in a pot of stew. **

**"I mean," she said slowly, puzzling it out, "if it's against the rules to tell a human or love a human, and you break the rules, then there must be some punishment for you..." Even as she said it, she sensed what the punishment was. More of James's face went into shadow. **

"What's the punishment?" Maggie asked.

"Death." Quinn answered simply. That shut Maggie up. Actually, it shut the hell out of every human in the room.

**"Don't you worry about that," he said in his old voice, his cool-guy voice. Poppy never took advice, not even from James. A surge of irritation and anger swept through her-an animal surge, like the feverish restlessness. She could feel her eyes narrow and her fingers claw.**

**"Don't you tell me what to worry about?"He frowned. **

**"Don't you tell me not to tell you-" he began, and then broke off.**

"What a stupid and pointless argument." Rashel said before adding, "No offense."

"You know saying no offense doesn't make it less offensive." James drawled. Everyone laughed.

**"What am I doing? You're still sick with the change and I'm just sitting here." He rolled up a sleeve of his windbreaker and drew a fingernail along his wrist. Where the nail cut, blood welled up. It looked black in the darkness. But Poppy found her eyes fixing on its liquid beading in fascination. Her lips parted and her breath came faster.**

**"Come on," James said, and held his wrist in front of her. The next second Poppy had pounced and fixed her mouth on it as if she were trying to save him from a snakebite. It was so natural, so easy. This is what she'd needed when she was dispatching Phil to get Popsicles and cranberry juice. This sweet, heady stuff was the real thing and nothing else was like it. Poppy sucked avidly. It was all good: the closeness, the rich, dark-red taste; the strength and vitality that flooded through her, warming her to her fingertips. But best, better than any mere sensation, was the touch of James's mind. It made her giddy with pleasure.**

"Really." James whispered huskily in Poppy's ears. Poppy blushed a deep crimson. James chuckled softly before backing.

**How could she ever have mistrusted him? It seemed ridiculous now that she could feel, directly, how he felt about her. She would never know any one the way she knew James. I'm sorry, she thought to him, and felt her thought accepted, forgiven, cherished. Held gently by the cradling of James's mind. It wasn't your fault, he told her. Poppy's mind seemed to be clearing with every second that went by. It was like waking up out of a deep and uncomfortable sleep. I don't ever want this to end, she thought, not really directing it at James, just thinking it. But she felt a reaction in him-and then felt him bury the reaction quickly. Not quickly enough. Poppy had sensed it. Vampires don't do this to each other. Poppy was shocked. They would never have this glory again after she changed? She wouldn't believe that; she refused. There must be a way... Again, she felt the beginning of a reaction in James, but just as she**

**was chasing it, he gently pulled his wrist back.**

"Why?" Poppy said slightly whiny.

**"You'd better not take any more tonight," he said, and his real-world voice sounded strange to Poppy's ears. It wasn't as much James as his mental voice, and now she couldn't really feel him**

**Properly. They were two separate beings. The isolation was awful. How could she survive if she could never touch his mind again? If she had to use words, which suddenly seemed as clumsy as smoke signals for communication? If she could never feel him fully, his whole being open to her? It was cruel and unfair and all vampires must be idiots if they settled for anything less. Before she could open her mouth to begin the clumsy process of verbally explaining this to James, the door moved. Phillip looked around it. **

**"Come on in," James said. "We've got a lot to talk about." Phil was staring at Poppy. **

"Wow, he's that shock."

**"Are you . . ." He stopped and swallowed before finishing in a husky whisper. **

**"Better?" It didn't take telepathy to sense his disgust. He glanced at her mouth, and then quickly away. Poppy realized what he must be seeing. A stain as if she'd been eating berries. She rubbed at her lips with the back of her hand. What she wanted to say was, it isn't disgusting. It's part of Nature. It's a way of giving life, pure life. It's secret and beautiful. It's all right. What she said was, **

**"Don't knock it till you've tried it." Phillip's face convulsed in horror. And the weird thing was that on this subject James was in perfect agreement with him. Poppy could sense it-James thought sharing blood was dark and evil, too. He was filled with guilt. **

"Why, he shouldn't be guilty. He should be happy! I. Am. Going. Live" Poppy said softly.

"He's probably guilty because you have cancer, he doesn't." Maggie said

"He thinks twins should always be the same. No matter what." Quinn reasoned. Everyone looked at him in shock.

"You actually said something that sounds logical enough to happen to humans." Jez said shrugging.

**Poppy heaved a long, exasperated sigh, and added, "Boys."**

**"You're better," Phil said, cracking a faint smile. **

**"I guess I was pretty bizarre before," Poppy said. "Sorry." **

**"Pretty is not the word."**

"**It wasn't her fault," James said shortly to Phil. "She was dying-and hallucinating, sort of. Not enough blood to the brain." **

"I don't get it." Poppy said with the other humans nodding in agreement.

**Poppy shook her head. "I don't get it. You didn't take that much blood from me the last time. How could I not have enough blood to the brain?" **

"We heard you the first time Poppy." Morgead said teasingly.

**"It's not that," James said. "The two kinds of blood react against each other-they fight each other. Look, if you want a scientific explanation, it's something like this. Vampire blood destroys the haemoglobin the red cells-in human blood. Once it destroys enough of the red cells, you stop getting the oxygen you need to think straight. And when it destroys more, you don't have the oxygen you need to live." **

"Conclusion. James is a know it all!" Morgead and Quinn shouted at each other. Morgead pouted.

"Why are you pouting?" Jez asked him.

"Quinn stole what I was going to say." Morgead said continuing to pout. Everyone laughed at his childish behaviour.

**"So vampire blood is like poison," Phil said, in the tones of someone who knew it all along. James shrugged. He wasn't looking at either Poppy or Phil. **

"Know it all's!" Morgead shouted quickly. Everyone laughed.

**"In some ways. But in other ways it's like a universal cure. It makes wounds heal fast, makes flesh regenerate. Vampires can live on very little oxygen because their cells are so resilient. Vampire blood does everything-except carry oxygen."A light went on in Poppy's brain. Dawning revelation-the mystery of Count Dracula explained. **

**"Wait a minute," she said. "Is that why you need human blood?"**

**"That's one of the reasons," James said. "There are some ... some more mystical things human blood does for us, but keeping us alive is the most basic one. We take a little and that carries oxygen through our system until our own blood destroys it. Then we take a little more."**

**Poppy settled back. "So that's it. And it is natural..."**

"Yeah, it's just a survival thing right." Mary-Lynnette asked the room in general. But it was Ash (past) who answered her.

"Yes. It's just for survival. Without blood, we die. Like you guys need water and food to live. We need blood." He said to her, his voice mellowing slightly. Mary-Lynnette bluched a deep red, so did Ash. This caused a stir among the others.

"I'll just continue." Eric said unsurely before getting a nod and smile from Thea.

**"Nothing about this is natural," Phil said, his disgust surfacing again.**

**"Yes, it is; it's like what do you call it, from biology class. Symbiosis-"**

**"It doesn't matter what its like," James said. "We can't sit here and talk about it. We've got to make plans."**

**There was an abrupt silence as Poppy realized what kind of plans he was talking about. She could tell Phil was realizing it, too.**

**"You're not out of danger yet," James said softly, his eyes holding Poppy's."It's going to take one more exchange of blood, and you should have it as soon as possible. Otherwise, you might relapse again. But we're going to have to plan the next exchange carefully-"**

**"Why?" Phil said, at his most deliberately obstructive.**

"Hmmm...let's see, why? Oh yeah, because it could kill her. You know, for someone who is so smart, he tends to forget very simple things." Keller said shaking her head.

**"Because it's going to kill me," Poppy said flatly before James could answer. And when Phil flinched she went on ruthlessly, "That's what this is all about, Phil. It's not some little game James and I are playing. We have to deal with the reality, and the reality is that one way or another I'm going to die soon. And I'd rather die and wake up a vampire- than die and not wake up at all."There was another silence, during which James put his hand on hers. It was only then that Poppy realized she was shaking. Phil looked up. Poppy could see that his face was drawn, his eyes dark. **

**"We're twins. So how'd you get so much older than me?" he said in a muted voice. **

"I didn't, I just saw more. Saw how important things were." Poppy said softly to herself. Everyone looked sadly or pityingly at her. But no one dared to say a word.

**A little hush, and then James said, "I think tomorrow night would be a goodtime to do it. It's Friday- do you think you can get your mom and Cliff out of The house for the night?"**

**Phil blinked. "I guess-if Poppy seems better, they might go out for a little while. If I said I'd stay with her."**

**"Convince them they need a break. I don't want them around."**

**"Can't you just make them not notice anything? Like you did with that nurse at the hospital?" Poppy asked.**

**"Not if I'm going to be concentrating on you," James said. "And there are certain people who can't be influenced by mind control at all-your brother, here, is one of them. Your mom could be another."**

"Yes, it's usually past on by generation." Thea said

"What's passed on by generation?" Poppy and Gillian asked simultaneously.

"Nothing, just a little extra info. That's all." Thea said sweetly.

**"All right; I'll get them to go out," Phillip said. He gulped, obviously uncomfortable and trying to hide it. **

**"And once they're gone ... then what?"James looked at him inscrutably. "Then Poppy and I do what we have to do. And then you and I watch TV."**

**"Watch TV," Phil repeated, sounding numb.**

"It must be so weird. Planning your own death."

"Or your sister's death." Morgead said in a deadpan voice.

**"I've got to be here when the doctor comes-and the people from the funeral home."Phil looked utterly horrified at the mention of the funeral home. For that matter, Poppy didn't feel too cheerful about it herself. If it weren't for the rich, strange blood coursing inside her, calling her ...**

**"Why?" Phillip was demanding of James. James shook his head, very slightly. His face was expressionless. **

**"I just do, "he said. "You'll understand later. For now, just trust me."**

**Poppy decided not to pursue it."So you guys are going to have to make up tomorrow," she said. "In front of Mom and Cliff. Otherwise it'll be too weird for you to hang out together."**

**"It'll be too weird no matter what," Phil said under his breath. **

**"All right. Come over tomorrow afternoon and we'll make up. And I'll get them to leave us with Poppy."James nodded. "I'd better go now." He stood. Phil stepped back to let him out the door, but James hesitated by Poppy."You gonna be all right?" he asked in a low voice. Poppy nodded staunchly.**

**"Tomorrow, then." He touched her cheek with his fingertips. The briefest contact, but it made Poppy's heart leap and it turned her words into the truth. She would be all right. They looked at each other a moment, then James turned away. Tomorrow, Poppy thought, watching the door close behind him. Tomorrow is the day I die. One thing about it, Poppy thought-not many people were privileged to know exactly when they were going to die. So not many people had the chance to say goodbye the way she planned to. It didn't matter that she wasn't really dying. When a caterpillar changes into a butterfly it loses it's cater pillar life. No more shinnying up twigs, no more eating leaves. No more El Camino High School, Poppy thought. **

Everyone looked sadly at that. No one made a sound. Poppy had tears in her eyes. James held her firmly in his arms.

"I'll just continue." Eric said softly.

**No more sleeping in this bed. She was going to have to leave it all behind. Her family, her hometown. Her entire human life. She was starting out into a strange new future with no idea of what was ahead. All she could do was trust James-and trust her own ability to adapt. It was like looking at a pale and curving road stretching in front of her, and not being able to see where it went as it disappeared into the darkness. No more Rollerblading down the boardwalk at Venice Beach, Poppy thought. No more slaps of wet feet on concrete at the Tamahaw public pool. No more shopping at the Village.**

**To say goodbye, she looked at every corner of her room. Goodbye white-painted dresser. Goodbye desk where she had sat writing hundreds of letters-as proven byte stains where she'd dropped sealing wax on the wood. Goodbye bed, goodbye misty white bed curtains that had made her feel like an Arabian princess in a fairy tale. Goodbye stereo. Ouch, she thought. My stereo. And my CDs. I can't leave them; I can't...But of course she could. She would have to. It was probably just as well that she had to deal with the stereo before she walked out of her room. It built her up to start dealing with the loss of people.**

**"Hi, Mom," she said shakily, in the kitchen.**

Poppy gasped. She had totally forgotten about her mom.

**"Poppy! I didn't know you were up."She hugged her mother hard, in that one moment aware of so many little sensations: the kitchen tile under her bare feet, the faint coconut smell that clung to her mother's hair from her shampoo. Her mother's arms around her and the warmth of her mother's body.**

**"Are you hungry, sweetie? You look so much better."Poppy couldn't stand to look into her mother's anxiously hopeful face, and the thought of food made her nauseated. She burrowed back into her mother's shoulder.**

**"Just hold me a minute," she said. It came to her, then, that she wasn't going to be able to say goodbye to everything after all. She couldn't tie up all the loose ends of her life in one afternoon. She might be privileged to know that this was her last day here, but she was going out just like everyone else-unprepared.**

**"Just remember I love you," she muttered into her mother's shoulder, blinking back tears. She let her mother put her back to bed, then. She spent the rest of the day making phone calls. Trying to learn a little bit about the life she was about to exit, the people she was supposed to know. Trying to appreciate it all, fast, before she had to leave it.\**

"That's so sad." Maggie said.

"It's painstakingly sad. To might never come back...it's just..." Hannah trailed

"Sad." Thierry ended.

**"So, Elaine, I miss you," she said into the mouth piece, her eyes fixed on the sunlight coming in her window.**

**"So, Brady, how's it going?"**

**"So, Laura thanks for the flowers."**

"At least you get to say goodbye to everyone. You know, in case..." Morgead trailed. He had gotten to like Poppy very much. Even if she was a human.

**"Poppy, are you okay?" they all said. "When are we going to see you again?"Poppy couldn't answer. She wished she could call her dad, but nobody knew where he was. She also wished she had actually read the play Our Town when she'd been assigned it last year, instead of using Cliff Notes and quick thinking to fake it. All she could remember now was that it was about a dead girl who got the Chance to look at one ordinary day in her life and really appreciate it. It might have helped her sort out her own feelings now-but it was too late. I wasted a lot of high school, Poppy realized. I used my brains to outsmart the teachers-and that really wasn't very smart at all. She discovered in herself a new respect for Phil, who actually used his brain to learn things. Maybe her brother wasn't just a pitiful straitlaced grind after all. Maybe-oh, God-he'd been right all along. I'm changing so much, Poppy thought, and she shivered. Whether it was the strange alien blood in her or the cancer itself or just part of growing up, she didn't know. But she was changing. The doorbell rang. Poppy knew who it was without leaving the room. She could sense James. He's here to start the play, Poppy thought, and looked at her dock. Incredible. It was almost four o'clock already. Time literally seemed to be flying by. Don't panic. You have hours yet, she told herself, and picked up the phone again. But it seemed only minutes later that her mother came knocking on the bedroom door.**

**"Sweetie, Phil thinks we should go out-and James has come over-but I told him I don't think you want to see him-and I don't really want to leave you at night..." Her mother was uncharacteristically flustered.**

"She's worried. She wants to leave but she doesn't want you to be by yourself." Gillian said frowning. Her mom might not even notice if she was gone or sick.

**"No, I'm happy to see James. Really. And I think you should take a break. Really."**

"**Well-I'm glad you and James have made up. But I still don't know..."It took time to convince her, to persuade her that Poppy was so much better, that Poppy had weeks or months ahead of her to live. That there was no reason to stick around on this particular Friday night but at last Poppy's mother kissed her and agreed. And then there was nothing to do but say goodbye to Cliff. Poppy got a hug from him and finally forgave him for not being her dad. You did your best, she thought as she disengaged from his crisp dark suit and looked at his boyishly square jaw. And you're going to be the one to take care of Mom-afterward. So I forgive you. You're all right, really. **

Poppy swallowed tightly. Cliff was going to be mom and Phils life preserver when she left. 'He tried. He might not be dad, but he tried his best', Poppy thought to herself.

**And then Cliff and her mom were walking out, and it was the last time, the very last time to say goodbye. Poppy called it after them and they both turned and they were gone, James and Phil came into Poppy's room. Poppy looked at James. His gray eyes were opaque, revealing nothing of his feelings.**

**"Now?" she said, and her voice trembled slightly. **

**"Now."**

"That's it." Eric said, "who's next?"

* * *

_**"REVIEW!"**_


	11. Chapter 11

***I do not own the NW series. They belong to the wonderful L..**

**Sorry if i haven't been updating lately. School started plus exams...:P Anyway...enjoy**

* * *

**CHAPTER 10**

"I'll read." Keller said, snatching the book before anyone else ccould.

"**Things have to be right," Poppy said. "Things have to be just right for this. Get some candles, Phil."**

"Candles?" Quinn asked confusedly, the others ( including Poppy) just shrugged.

**Phil was looking ashen and haggard. "Candles?"**

"Hey! You just said the same thing as Phil." Eric said loudly before looking down in embarrassment. Thea thought he looked cute but quickly shaked the feeling out.

"I think I wanna see this kid someday." Quinn said grinning.

**"As many as you can find. And some pillows. I need lots of pillows." She knelt by the stereo to ex amine a haphazard pile of CDs. Phil stared at her briefly, then went out.**

**" Structures from Silence . . . no. Too repetitious," Poppy said, rummaging through the pile. " Deep Forest -no. Too hyper. I need something ambient."**

"You mean something like Music to Disappear In?" James asked her. Poppy gave him a 'do I look like I know' look to him.

"Right. Future." James grinned sheepishly.

**"How about this?" James picked a CD up. Poppy looked at the label. Music to Disappear In.**

"Wow James, you obviously don't change much in the next few weeks." Jez said smirkingly.

**Of course. It was perfect. Poppy took the CD and met James's gaze. Usually he referred to the haunting soft strains of ambient music as 'New Age mush.'**

**"You understand," she said quietly.**

**"Yes. But you're not dying, Poppy. This isn't a death scene you're setting up."**

"It definitely sounds like one." Morgead said, but he knew he was just as anxious as everyone else. Would Poppy make it through?

"No offense guy's but I would really like to finish this book in this century preferably, so shut it." Said Keller to the others annoyed that she was once again interrupted.

**"But I'm going away. I'm changing." Poppy couldn't explain exactly, but something in her said she was doing the right thing. She was dying to her old life. It was a solemn occasion, a Passage.**

**And of course, although neither of them mentioned it, they both knew she might die for good. James had been very frank about that-some people didn't make it through the transition.**

**Phil came back with candles, Christmas candles, emergency candles, scented votive candles. Poppy directed him to place them around the room and light them. She herself went to the bathroom to change into her best nightgown. It was flannel, with a pattern of little strawberries.**

"My favourite flannel." Poppy said quietly to herself. James gave her a hug while the vamps ( and Keller) pretended they didn't hear a thing.

**Just imagine, she thought as she left the bathroom. This is the last time I'll ever walk down this hall, the last time I'll push open my bedroom door.**

**The bedroom was beautiful. The soft glow of candlelight gave it an aura of sanctity, of mystery. The music was unearthly and sweet, and Poppy felt she could fall into it forever, the way she felt in her dreams.**

**Poppy opened the closet and used a hanger to bat a tawny stuffed lion and a floppy gray Eeyore down from the top shelf. She took them to her bed and put them beside the mounded pillows. Maybe it was stupid, maybe it was childish, but she wanted them with her.**

"Why?" Ash asked, no one answered him.

**She sat on the bed and looked at James and Phillip. They were both looking at her. Phil was dearly upset, touching his mouth to stop its trembling. James was upset, too, although only someone who knew him as well as Poppy did would have been able to tell.**

**"It's all right," Poppy told them. "Don't you see? I'm all right, so there's no excuse for you not to be."**

**And the strange thing was, it was the truth. She was all right. She felt calm and clear now, as if everything had become very simple. She saw the road ahead of her, and all she had to do was follow it, step by step.**

**Phil came over to squeeze her hand. "How does this how does this work?" he asked James huskily.**

"Ohmigod. Phil, I cant believe he has to see this." Poppy said sadly

"It must be so hard, seeing a relative die in front of you." Mare said sadly, unknown to Jez's thoughts of her parents or Rashel's horrified solemn face. Keller cleared her throat before resuming.

**"First we'll exchange blood," James said-speaking to Poppy. Looking only at her. "It doesn't have to be a lot; you're right on the border of changing already. Then the two kinds of blood fight it out sort of the last battle, if you see what I mean." He smiled faintly and painfully, and Poppy nodded.**

**"While that's happening you'll feel weaker and weaker. And then you'll just go to sleep. The change happens while you're asleep."**

"Then when do I wake up?" Poppy asked.

**"And when do I wake up?" Poppy asked.**

Poppy blinked slowly before joining everyone laughing.

"I guess some people just never change." Maggie said.

**"I'll give you a kind of posthypnotic suggestion about that. Tell you to wake up when I come to get you. Don't worry about it; I've got all the details figured out. All you need to do is rest."**

**Phil was running nervous hands through his hair, as if he was just now thinking about what kind of details he and James were going to have to deal with.**

**"Wait a minute," he said in almost a croak. "When - when you say 'sleep'-she's going to look ..."**

**"Dead," Poppy supplied, when his voice ran out.**

**James gave Phil a cold look. "Yes. We've been over this."**

"James, he is trying his best. It is quite hard to plan your own twin's death you know." Rowan chided him. James mumbled sorry.

"Whipped." Quinn said to Ash and they both started snickering. James shot them a glare.

**"And then-we're really going to-what's going to happen to her?" James glared.**

**"It's okay," Poppy said softly. "Tell him."**

**"You know what's going to happen," James said through clenched teeth to Phillip. "She can't just disappear. We'd have the police and the Night people after us, looking for her. No, it's got to seem that she died from the cancer, and that means everything's got to happen exactly the way it would if she had died.**

**Phil's sick expression said he wasn't at his most rational. "You're sure there isn't any other way?"**

**"No," James said.**

"Well, that's reassuring." Morgead said sarcastically. Everyone tried to cover their laughs and snickers (and failed miserably)

**Phil wet his lips. "Oh, God."**

**Poppy herself didn't want to dwell on it too much. She said fiercely, "Deal with it, Phil. You've got to. And remember, if it doesn't happen now it's going to happen in a few weeks-for real."**

Poppy gulped. James hugged her closer to him.

**Phil was holding on to one of the brass bedposts so hard that his knuckles were pale. But he'd gotten the point, and there was no one better than Phil at bracing himself. "You're right," he said thinly, with the ghost of his old efficient manner. "Okay, I'm dealing with it."**

**'Then let's get started," Poppy said, making her voice calm and steady. As if she were dealing with everything effortlessly herself.**

**James said to Phil, "You don't want to see this part. Go out and watch TV for a few minutes." Phil hesitated, then nodded and left.**

"Why do I have a feeling that he's glad to be out of the room?" Delos's said putting a thinking face on. Everyone laughed, Maggie met his eyes and gave a shy smile. Heat crept on the back of his neck as he looked at his shoes.

**"One thing," Poppy said to James as she scooted to the middle_ of the bed. She was still trying desperately to sound casual. "After the funeral-well, I'll be asleep, won't I? I won't wake up ... you know. In my nice little coffin." She looked up at him. "It's just that I'm claustrophobic, a little."**

"I know, don't worry, everything will be okay." James said giving her a hug. Ash looked jealously as Mare and his future counterpart set next to each other, their fingers occasionally touching. Rowan saw this and struggled to hide her smile.

**"You won't wake up there," James said. "Poppy, I wouldn't let that happen to you. Trust me; I've thought of everything."**

**Poppy nodded. I do trust you, she thought. Then she held her arms out to him. He touched her neck, so she tilted her chin back. As the blood was drawn from her, she felt her mind drawn into his.**

**Don't worry, Poppy. Don't be afraid. All his thoughts were ferociously protective. And even though it only confirmed that there was something to be afraid of, that this could go wrong, Poppy felt peaceful. The direct sense of his love made her calm, flooded her with light.**

**She suddenly felt distance and height and depth spaciousness. As if her horizons had expanded almost to infinity in an instant. As if she'd discovered a new dimension. As if there were no limits or obstacles to what she and James could do together.**

**She felt ... free. I'm getting light-headed, she realized. She could feel herself going limp in James's arms. Swooning like a wilting flower.**

**I've taken enough, James said in her mind. The warm animal mouth on her throat pulled back. "Now it's your turn."**

**This time, though, he didn't make the cut at his wrist. He took off his T-shirt and, with a quick, impulsive gesture, ran a fingernail along the base of his throat.**

"Oh." Was all Poppy said.

**Oh, Poppy thought.**

"No matter how many times it happens, it's still weird." Poppy said shrugging.

**Slowly, almost reverently, she leaned forward. James's hand supported the back of her head. Poppy put her arms around him, feeling his bare skin under the flannel of her nightgown.**

**It was better this way. But if James was right, it was another last time. She and James could never exchange blood again.**

**I can't accept that, Poppy thought, but she couldn't concentrate on anything for very long. This time, instead of clearing her brain, the wild, intoxicating vampire blood was making her more confused. More heavy and sleepy.**

"Is that suppose to happen?" Poppy asked the lamia's/vamps quickly. They nodded although only Quinn knew the answer.

**James?**

**It's all right. It's the beginning of the change.**

**Heavy ... sleepy ... warm. Lapped in salty ocean waves. She could almost picture the vampire blood trickling through her veins, conquering everything in its path. It was ancient blood, primeval. It was changing her into something old, something that had been around since the dawn of time. Something primitive and basic.**

**Every molecule in her body, changing ...**

"Cool!" Mare and Eric said together. Everyone looked at them as if they were crazy. _Ash_ just chuckled along with _Thea,_ they were use to the weird random things their soulmates liked.

"I just like molecules." Mare and Eric mumbled.

**Poppy, can you hear me? James was shaking her slightly. Poppy had been so engrossed in the sensations that she hadn't even realized she wasn't drinking any longer. James was cradling her.**

"**Poppy."**

**It was an effort to open her eyes. "I'm all right. Just ... sleepy."**

**His arms tightened around her, then he laid her gently on the mounded pillows.**

**"You can rest now. I'll get Phil."**

**But before he went, he kissed her on the forehead.**

**My first kiss, Poppy thought, her eyes drifting shut again. And I'm comatose. Great.**

With that statement, James gave Poppy a long and sensual kiss on the lips. Whe they broke apart some (most) of the guys were catcalling and whooping at them.

"Now you've had a kiss while you're not comatose." James said simply as if to explain why he kissed her.

**She felt the bed give under weight and looked up to see Phil. Phil looked very nervous, sitting gingerly, staring at Poppy. "So what's happening now?" he asked.**

**"The vampire blood's taking over," James said.**

**Poppy said, "I'm really sleepy."**

**There was no pain. Just a feeling of wanting to glide away. Her body now felt warm and numb, as if she were insulated by a soft, thick aura.**

"Well, it kinda sounds...nice. I mean, it doesn't hurt and the way it's explain is as if you're just falling asleep on an amazing bed." Maggie said thoughtfully.

**"Phil? I forgot to say-thank you. For helping out. And everything. You're a good brother, Phil."**

"You're an amazing brother." Poppy said, tears flooding her eyes.

**"You don't have to say that now," Phil said tersely. "You can say it later. I'm still going to be here later, you know."**

**But I might not be, Poppy thought. This is all a gamble. And I'd never take it, except that the only alternative was to give up without even trying to fight.**

**I fought, didn't I? At least I fought.**

"Yes you did. Unlike most of us, you fought to live. You chose it. You're a fighter Poppy. That's what you are, a fighter." Quinn said to her. Poppy blushed under his gaze.

**"Yes, you did," Phil said, his voice trembling. Poppy hadn't been aware she was speaking aloud. **(Thea frowned quizzically at this)** "You've always been a fighter," Phil said. "I've learned so much from you."**

"Quinn's channelling Phil again!" Mare shouted in glee. Everyone laughed while Quinn gave a faint smile.

**Which was funny, because she'd learned so much from him, even if most of it was in the last twenty four hours. She wanted to tell him that, but there was so much to say, and she was so tired. Her tongue felt thick; her whole body weak and languorous.**

**"Just ... hold my hand," she said, and she could hear that her voice was no louder than a breath. Phillip took one of her hands and James the other. That was good. This was the way to do it, with Eeyore and her lion on the pillows beside her and Phil and James holding her hands, keeping her safe and anchored.**

"That's nice." Poppy said randomly. The nightworlders had to refrain themselves from laughing.

**One of the candles was scented with vanilla, a warm and homey smell. A smell that reminded her of being a kid. Nilla wafers and naptime. That was what this was like. Just a nap in Miss Spurgeon's kindergarten, with the sun slanting across the floor and James on a mat beside her. So safe, so serene ...**

**"Oh, Poppy," Phil whispered.**

**James said, "You're doing great, kiddo. Every thing's just right." That was what Poppy needed to hear. She let herself fall backward into the music, and it was like falling in a dream, without fear. It was like being a raindrop falling into the ocean that had started you.**

**At the last moment she thought, I'm not ready. But she already knew the answer to that. Nobody was ever ready.**

"Kid, you're probably the most ready out of all of us. You at least knew what was coming. None of us did." Quinn said indicating vampires.

**But she'd been stupid-she'd forgotten the most important thing. She'd never told James she loved him. Not even when he'd said he loved her.**

"I love you." Poppy said quickly to James. James smiled before saying, "I love you too."

**She tried to get enough air, enough strength to say it. But it was too late. The outside world was gone and she couldn't feel her body any longer. She was floating in the darkness and the music, and all she could do now was sleep.**

**"Sleep," James said, leaning dose to Poppy. "Don't wake up until I call you. Just sleep."**

**Every muscle in Phil's body was rigid. Poppy looked so peaceful-pale, with her hair spread out in coppery curls on the pillow, and her eyelashes black on her cheeks and her lips parted as she breathed gently. She looked like a porcelain baby doll. But the more peaceful she got, the more terrified Phil felt.**

Poppy gave a heavy sigh.

**I can deal with this, he told himself. I have to. Poppy gave a soft exhalation, and then suddenly she was moving. Her chest heaved once, twice. Her hand tightened on Phil's and her eyes flew open but she didn't seem to be seeing anything. She simply looked astonished.**

"What's happening?" Poppy asked startled. So was half the room.

"Your changing." Quinn said with a tiny smile.

**"Poppyl" Phil grabbed at her, getting a handful of flannel nightgown. She was so small and fragile inside it. "Poppyl"**

**The heaving gasps stopped. For one moment Poppy was suspended in air, then her eyes closed and she fell back on the pillows. Her hand was limp in Phil's. Phil lost all rationality.**

**"Poppy," he said, hearing the dangerous, unbalanced tone in his own voice.**

**"Poppy, come on. Poppy, wake up!"-on a rising note. His hands were shaking violently, scrabbling at Poppy's shoulders.**

"Oh Phil." Poppy said tears streaming down her cheeks. The others were just staring emptily at the book.

**Other hands pushed his away. "What the hell are you doing?" James said quietly.**

**"Poppy? Poppy?" Phil kept staring at her. Her chest wasn't moving. Her face had a look of-innocent release. The kind of newness you only see in babies.**

**And it was-changing. Taking on a white, trans parent look. It was uncanny, ghostlike, and even though Phil had never seen a corpse, he knew instinctively that this was the death pallor.**

**Poppy's essence had left her. Her body was flat and toneless, no longer inflated by the vital spirit. Her hand in Phil's was slack, not like the hand of a sleeping person. Her skin had lost its shine, as if somebody had breathed on it softly.**

**Phil threw back his head and let out an animal sound. It wasn't human. It was a howl.**

**"You killed her!" He tumbled off the bed and lurched toward James. "You said she was just going to sleep, but you killed her! She's dead!"**

All the girls we're crying by this point, Mare and Maggie were thinking of their own brothers imagining seeing them dead (Which in maggie's case, she did. But that's another story). Rashel closed her eyes, remembering her fifth birthday. The guys had grim looks on their faces. James hugged Poppy securely to him.

**James didn't back away from the attack. Instead, he grabbed Phil and dragged him out into the hallway.**

**"Hearing is the last sense to go," he snarled in Phillip's ear. "She may be able to hear you."**

**Phil wrenched free and ran toward the living room. He didn't know what he was doing, he only knew that he needed to destroy things. Poppy was dead. She was gone. He grabbed the couch and flipped it over, then kicked the coffee table over, too. He snatched up a lamp, yanked its cord out of the socket, and threw it toward the fireplace.**

"He's gonna ruin the house if you don't stop him James." Quinn said seriously.

**"Stop it!" James shouted over the crash. Phil saw him and ran at him. The sheer force of his charge knocked James backward into the wall. They fell to the floor together in a heap.**

**"You-killed her!" Phil gasped, trying to get his hands around James's throat. Silver. James's eyes blazed like the molten metal. He grabbed Phil's wrists in a painful grip.**

**"Stop it now, Phillip," he hissed.**

**Something about the way he said it made Phil stop. Almost sobbing, he struggled to get air into his lungs.**

**"I'll kill you if I have to, to keep Poppy safe," James said, his voice still savage and menacing. "And she's only safe if you stop this and do exactly what I tell you to. Exactly what I tell you. Understand?" He shook Phil hard, nearly banging Phil's head into the wall.**

"Whoa, watch it Rasmussen, hurt my brother and you will regret it." Poppy said menacingly. But James had an urge to laugh, she looked so damn cute.

**Strangely enough, it was the right thing to say. James was saying he cared about Poppy. And weird as it might sound, Phil had come to trust James to tell the truth.**

**The raging red insanity in Phil's brain died away. He took a long breath.**

**"Okay. I understand," he said hoarsely. He was used to being in charge-both of himself and of other people. He didn't like James giving him orders. But in this case there was no help for it. "But-she is dead, isn't she?"**

**"It depends on your definition," James said, letting go and slowly pushing himself off the floor. He scanned the living room, his mouth grim. "Nothing went wrong, Phil. Everything went just the way it was supposed to-except for this. I was going to let your parents come back and find her, but we don't have that option now. There isn't any way to explain this mess, except the truth."**

**"The truth being?"**

**"That you went in there and found her dead and went berserk. And then I called your parents-you know what restaurant they're at, don't you?"**

"Probably Valentino's, it's their favourite restaurant." Poppy said shakily, she was still shocked by Phil's outburst.

**"It's Valentino's. My mom said they were lucky to get in."**

**"Okay. That'll work. But first we have to clean up the bedroom. Get all the candles and stuff out. It's got to look as if she just went to sleep, like any other night."**

**Phil glanced at the sliding glass door. It was just getting dark. But then Poppy had been sleeping a lot these last few days. "We'll say she got tired and told us to go watch TV," he said slowly, trying to conquer his dazed feeling and be clearheaded. "And then I went in after a while and checked on her."**

**"Right," James said, with a faint smile that didn't reach his eyes.**

**It didn't take long to clear out the bedroom. The hardest thing was that Phil had to keep looking at Poppy, and every time he looked, his heart lurched. She**

**looked so tiny, so delicate-limbed. A Christmas angel in June. He hated to take the stuffed animals away from her.**

"Then don't." Poppy said. She wanted the stuffed animals with her, it made her feel...safe-ish.

**"She is going to wake up, isn't she?" he said, without looking at James.**

**"God, I hope so," James said, and his voice was very tired. It sounded more like a prayer than a wish. "If she doesn't you won't have to come after me with a stake, Phil. I'll take care of it myself."**

"Don't be stupid. Poppy is doing this for life...and you would just throw it away. She doesn't want that." Quinn said snarling. He was pleased to see James bow his head in shame.

**Phil was shocked-and angry. "Don't be stupid," he said brutally. "If Poppy stood for anything-if she stands for anything-it's for life. Throwing your life away would be like a slap in her face. Besides, even if it goes wrong now, you did your best. Blaming yourself is just stupid."**

"Channelling Phil.." someone said in a sing-song voice. Everyone started to snicker

**James looked at him blankly, and Phil realized they'd managed to surprise each other. Then James nodded slowly. "Thanks."**

**It was a milestone, the first time they'd ever been on precisely the same wavelength. Phillip felt an odd connection between them.**

**He looked away and said briskly, "Is it time to call the restaurant?"**

**James glanced at his watch. "In just a few minutes."**

**"If we wait too long they're going to have left by the time we call."**

**"That doesn't matter. What matters is that we don't have any paramedics trying to resuscitate her, or taking her to the hospital. Which means she's got to be cold by the time anybody gets here."**

**Phil felt a wave of dizzy horror. "You're a cold blooded snake after all."**

Everyone laughed even though it wasn't that funny. Just to lighten the mood.

**"I'm just practical," James said wearily, as if speaking to a child. He touched one of Poppy's marble white hands where it lay on the bedspread. "All right. It's time. I'm going to call. You can go berserk again if you want to."**

**Phil shook his head. He didn't have the energy anymore. But he did feel like crying, which was almost as good. Crying and crying like a kid who was lost and hurt.**

**"Get my mom," he said thickly.**

**He knelt on the floor beside Poppy's bed and waited. Poppy's music was off and he could hear the TV in the family room. He had no sense of time passing until he also heard a car in the driveway.**

**Then he leaned his forehead against Poppy's mattress. His tears were absolutely genuine. At that moment he was sure he'd lost her forever.**

"I'm so sorry Phil." Poppy said softly.

**"Brace yourself," James said from behind him. "They****'re here."**

"That's it." Keller said, "Who's next?"


	12. Chapter 12

"CHAPTER 11" said Quinn who had volunteered to read.

**The next few hours were the worst of Phil's life.**

"Oh Phil." Poppy sighed sadly. She knew this wasn't going to be easy and she wished there was something she could do.

_When I get back, I promise I'll be the best twin sister you could ever ask for, Phil. I promise, _Poppy thought sadly.

**First and foremost was his mother. **

The eyes of every single girl, except for Keller, got misty.

**As soon as she walked in, Phil's priorities changed from wanting herto comfort him to wanting to comfort her. And ofcourse there wasn't any comfort. All he could do was hold on to her.**

The boys slowly and unsurely put their arms around their respective soulmates except for Rowan, Ash and Mary-Lynnette.

_Their all so lucky. They have people they know and people who love them back._ Mary-Lynnette thought sadly, as she felt the dept of her loneliness. She failed to notice _Ash_ looking longingly at her.

**It's too cruel, he thought dimly. There ought to be a way to tell her. But she would never believe it, andif she did, she'd be in danger,too...**

**Eventually the paramedics did come, but only afterDr. Franklin had arrived.**

**"I called him," James said to Phil during one ofthe interludes when Phil's mom was crying on Cliff.**

**"Why?"**

**"To keep things simple. In this state, doctors can issue a death certificate if they've seen you withinthe last twenty days and they know the cause ofdeath. We don't want any hospitals or coroners."**

"Why? You have a problem with doctors and hospitals?" Eric asked James.

James opened his mouth to answer befor Quinn stopped him, "Don't bother Rasmussen, the book you answers the question.

**Phil shook his head. "Why? What's your problemwith hospitals?"**

"Looks like its Erics turn to be Phil." Thea joked and gave Eric a small smile. He blushed and returned a shy smile back.

**"My problem," James said in a clipped, distinctvoice. "is that in hospitals they do autopsies."**

"Oh"

**Phil froze. He opened his mouth but no sound came out.**

**"And in funeral homes they do embalming. Which is why I need to be around when they come to pick up the body. I need to influence their minds not to embalm her, or sew her lips shut, or-"**

"Honestly James. You have the tact of a toddler." Poppy said exasperately. James just gave her a sheepish grin.

"Guys, can I continue or do you two want a room first?" Quinn asked cheekily.

"Just read" Delos said.

**Phil bolted for the bathroom and was sick. He hated James again.**

"Well, I knew it was too good to last." James said in a defeated manner.

**But nobody took Poppy to the hospital; and didn't mention an autopsy. He just held Phil's mother's hand and spoke quietly about how these things could happen suddenly, and how at least Poppy had been spared any pain.**

_Thea _magicked a box of tissues and in a matter of minutes, the box was half empty.

**"But she was so much better today," Phil's motherwhispered through tears. "Oh, my baby, my baby. She'd been getting worse, but today she was better. "**

"Oh mum. I'm so, so sorry." Poppy whispered.

"It happens sometimes. Sort of like the last fight for life." Rowan said sadly.

**"It happens like that sometimes," Dr. Franklin said. "It's almost as if they rally for a last burst of life."**

"Yeah, we've heard." Jez said tearfully.

**"But I wasn't there for her," Phil's mom said, and now there weren't any tears, just the terrible grating sound of guilt. "She was alone when she died."**

"Please forgive me mum. I wasn't alone. I was never alone" Poppy said, her voice muffled by James tear stained shirt.

**Phil said, "She was asleep. She just went to sleep and never woke up. If you look at her, you can see how peaceful it was."**

**He kept saying things like that, and so did Cliff and so did the doctor, and eventually the paramedics went away. And sometime after that, while his mother was sitting on Poppy's bed and stroking her hair, the people from the mortuary came.**

**"Just give me a few minutes," Phil's mother said, dry-eyed and pale. "I need a few minutes alone with her."**

"Its hard to lose someone. Especially when you really, really love them" Thierry said softly, looking at Hannah who was snuggled up against her.

"Yeah." Jez whispered softly.

**The mortuary men sat awkwardly in the family room, and James stared at them. Phil knew what was going on. James was fixing in their minds the fact that there was to be no embalming.**

**"Religious reasons, is that it?" one of the men said to Cliff, breaking a long silence.**

"Honestly James. You really need to work on your telepathy skills." Ash snorted but stopped when he saw Mary-Lynnettes' cold look.

**Cliff stared at him, eyebrows coming together. "What are you talking about?"**

**The man nodded. "I understand. It's no problem."**

This situation managed to draw out some laughter and chuckles from the occupants in the room.

**Phil understood, too. Whatever the man was hearing, it wasn't what Cliff was saying.**

**"The only thing is, you'll want to have the viewing right away," the other man said to Cliff. "Or else a closed casket."**

**"Yes, it was unexpected," Cliff said, his face straightening out. "It's been a very short illness."**

"Now they're having two completely different conversations!" Gillian laughed out. Her eyes met David's equally laughing ones and for a brief moment, something passed between them before they shied away.

**So now he wasn't hearing what the men were saying. Phil looked at James and saw sweat trickling down his face. Clearly it was a struggle to control three minds at once.**

"Not for me." Both Ash's said smugly.

"Arrogant idiots." Mary-Lynnette and Rowan said together before looking at each other.

_I like her. You chose well Ash, even if it wasn't your choice per say. _Rowan thought wryly.

"Are you two done being fools? Good, I'll continue then." Quinn said.

**At last Cliff went in and got Phil's mother. He led her to the master bedroom to keep her from seeing what happened next.**

**What happened was that the two men went into- Poppy's room with a body bag and a gurney. When they came out, there was a small, delicate hump in the bag.**

The girls all let out a muffled cry/choke and were immediately comforted. Even Mary-Lynnette had

**Phil felt himself losing rationality again. He wanted to knock things down. He wanted to run a marathon to get away.**

**Instead, his knees started to buckle and his vision grayed out.**

"And here comes the crash." Keller said before shutting up after the cold glare Poppy shot her.

**Hard arms held him up, led him to a chair. "Hang on," James said. "Just a few more minutes. It's almost over."**

"Thank you." Poppy said firmly, looking straight into James' eyes.

"Anything for you." James blurted.

Morgead and Quinn who never missed an opportunity to embarrass people made kissy faces behind them.

"Cut it out you two. Past me, stop making us look like idiots and just read." _Quinn _said exasperately.

**Right then Phil could almost forgive him for being a bloodsucking monster.**

**It was very late that night when everyone finally went to bed. To bed, not to sleep. Phil was one solid ache of misery from his throat down to his feet, and he lay awake with the light on until the sun came up.**

**The funeral home was like a Victorian mansion, and the room Poppy was in was filled with flowers and people. Poppy herself was in a white casket with gold fittings, and from far away she looked as if she were sleeping.**

**Phil didn't like to look at her. He looked instead at the visitors who kept coming in and filling the viewing room and the dozens of wooden pews. He'd never realized how many people loved Poppy.**

"You never know how much you love something or someone until its gone." _Ash _said wisely which caused everyone to looked at him in shocked.

"I've grown up." _Ash _said with a shrug.

"Yes, you have." Rowan said, biting a smile.

**"She was so full of life," her English teacher said. "I can't believe she's gone," a guy from Phil's football team said. "I'll never forget her," one of her friends said, crying.**

**Phil wore a dark suit and stood with his mother and Cliff. It was like a receiving line for a wedding. His mother kept saying, "Thank you for coming," and hugging people. The people went over and touched the casket gently and cried.**

Morgead opened his mouth to say something but _Ash _cut him off.

"People, it is nearly two in the morning, can we PLEASE just finish this chapter in peace without any interruptions." _Ash _said giving Morgead and Quinn a meaningful look.

"I'll just continue then" Quinn muttered.

**And in the process of greeting so many mourners,s omething strange happened. Phil got drawn in. The reality of Poppy's death was so real that all the vampire stuff began to seem like a dream. Bit by bit, he started to believe the story he was acting out.**

**After all, everybody else was so sure. Poppy had gotten cancer, and now she was dead. Vampires were just superstition.**

**James didn't come to the viewing.**

"What? Why?" Poppy asked, turning to face him. James gave her a 'really, haven't we moved pass this situation already?' look.

"Right." She said with a watery grin.

**Poppy was dreaming.**

**She was walking by the ocean with James. It was warm and she could smell salt and her feet were wet and sandy. She was wearing a new bathing suit, the kind that changes color when it gets wet. She hoped James would notice the suit, but he didn't say anything about it.**

**Then she realized he was wearing a mask. That was strange, because he was going to get a very weird tan with most of his face covered up.**

"That doesn't sound like me." James said frowning.

**"Shouldn't you take that off?" she said, thinking he might need help. "I wear it for my health," James said-only it wasn't James's voice. Poppy was shocked. She reached out and pulled the mask away. It wasn't James. It was a boy with ash blond hair, even lighter than Phil's. Why hadn't she noticed his hairearlier? His eyes were green-and then they were blue.**

James frowned, _No, it can't be._

"Who is it?" Maggie asked curiously.

**"Who are you?" Poppy demanded. She was afraid.**

"Haha, looks like we think alike" Maggie said happily.

**"That would be telling." He smiled. His eyes were violet. **

"Ash!" James all but growled, "What are you doing. I swear, if you hurt her…" James hissed angrily at Ash, who just looked back at him in a bored manner.

"I'd be doing the world a favour, most importantly I'd be doing you a favour." He shot back with a strained voice.

James pounced on him and in minutes, a full blown fight broke out.

"Aren't you going to do anything about that." _Thierry _asked _Ash._

"Nope. He deserves it. I really was a bastard wasn't I." _Ash _said grimly.

"Hell yeah. But if you don't stop that. I don't think you'll live long enough to meet her." _Thierry _said. He didn't have to explain who 'her' was, _Ash_ just knew. With a tired sigh, he broke them up.

"Alright boys. Great display of testosterone, but I think everyone whould like to continue with the book." _Ash _said tiredly as if talking to a pair of 5 year olds.

The two cousins looked at each other with pure hatred but after a long, hard look from _Ash_, they backed down.

"Here, let me help." Poppy said, eyeing James' black eye. He kissed the top of her head as Ash looked on jealously. Then, unexpectedly, a timid voice said "Are you alright?"

Ash turned and was surprised to see Mary-Lynnette looking at him with her big gorgeous eyes. For a minute, Ash was speechless.

Quinn cleared his throat to notify Ash that they were all still in the room. He gave Ash a looked that was more of a 'can I continue?' and Ash nodded tightly. Ignoring Mary-Lynnettes question and just sat moodily on his beanbag.

**Then he lifted his hand, and she saw that he was holding a poppy. At least, it was shaped like a poppy, but it was black. He caressed her cheek with the flower.**

**"Just remember," he said, still smiling whimsically. "Bad magic happens."**

"What?" Poppy asked, confused.

**"What?"**

Poppy blushed. "Yup, some people just never change." James teased her, earning him a swat on the arm.

**"Bad magic happens," he said and turned and walked away. She found herself holding the poppy. He didn't 'leave any footprints in the sand.**

**Poppy was alone and the ocean was roaring. Clouds were gathering overhead. She wanted to wake up now, but she couldn't, and she was aloneand scared. She dropped the flower as anguish surged through her.**

**"James!"**

**Phil sat up in bed, heart pounding.**

**God, what had that been? Something like a shout in Poppy's voice.**

"Wait, Phil saw that? How?" Poppy asked, looking at the night world people. They all shrugged or shook their heads except for Thea and the future people.

"I have an idea but I think I'll keep it to myself first." Thea told Poppy. This didn't exactly pleased Poppy but something about Thea made Poppy trust her.

**I'm hallucinating.**

**Which wasn't surprising. It was Monday, the day of Poppy's funeral. In-Phil glanced at the clock about four hours he had to be at the church. No wonder he was dreaming about her.**

**But she had sounded so scared...**

**Phil put the thought out of his mind. It wasn't even hard. He'd convinced himself that Poppy was dead, and dead people didn't shout.**

**At the funeral, though, Phil got a shock. His father was there. **

"He came!"

**He was even wearing something resembling a suit, although the jacket didn't match the trousers and his tie was askew.**

**"I came as soon as I heard..."**

**"Well, where were you?" Phil's mother said, the fine lines of strain showing around her eyes, the way they always did when she had to deal with Phil's father.**

**"Backpacking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Next time, I swear, I'll leave an address. I'll check my messages..." He began to cry. Phil's mom didn't say anything else. She just reached for him, and Phil's heart twisted at the way they clung to each other.**

**He knew his dad was irresponsible and hopelessly behind in child support and flaky and a failure. But nobody had ever loved Poppy more. Right then, Phil couldn't disapprove of him, not even with Cliff standing there for comparison.**

"Wow, that's impressive." Morgead said before getting slapped in the head by a teary Jez.

**His shock came when his dad turned to Phil before the service. "You know, she came to me last night,"**

**he said in a low voice. "Her spirit, I mean. She visited me."**

**Phil looked at him. This was the kind of weird statement that had brought on the divorce. His father had always talked about peculiar dreams and seeing things that weren't there. Not to mention collecting articles about astrology, numerology, and UFOs.**

A light bulb flickered on in James and Ash's head. Thea just smiled smugly, _took you long enough_, she projected to James and Ash. James gave her a grin whereas Ash just gave her a passing glance.

**"I didn't see her, but I heard her calling. I just wish she hadn't sounded so frightened. Don't tell your mother, but I got the feeling she's not at rest." He put his hands over his face.**

**Phil felt every hair on the back of his neck standup.**

"That's kinda creepy." Maggie said.

Gillian bit her lip. Poppy's dad sounded just like her mother. With the weird dreams and peculiar sayings. _At least I'm not the only one, _she thought.

**But the spooky feeling was drowned almost immediately in the sheer grief of the funeral. In hearing things like "Poppy will live on forever in our hearts and memories." A silver hearse led the way to Forest Park cemetery, and everyone stood in the June sunshine as the minister said some last words over Poppy's casket. By the time Phil had to put a rose on the casket, he was shaking.**

**It was a terrible time. Two of Poppy's girlfriends collapsed in near-hysterical sobs. Phillip's mother doubled over and had to be led away from the casket. There was no time to think-then or at the pot luck at Phil's house afterward.**

Everyone was silent in the room except for the occasional sob by Poppy. Even Morgead knew better than to say anything.

**But it was at the house that Phil's two worlds collided. In the middle of all the milling confusion, he saw James.**

**He didn't know what to do. James didn't fit into what was going on here. Phil had half a mind to go over and tell him to get out, that the sick joke was over.**

**Before he could do anything, James walked up and said under his breath, "Be ready at eleven o'clock tonight."**

**Phil was jolted. "For what?"**

"For what else. He's not the brightest vermin in the hole is he." Ash said spitefully. James just gave him a withering look.

**"Just be ready, okay? And have some of Poppy's clothes with you. Whatever won't be missed." Phil didn't say anything, and James gave him an exasperated sideways look.**

**"We have to get her out, stupid. Or did you want to leave her there?"**

"Really James. I disagree with Poppy. You don't have the tact of a 5 year old. You have NO tact. Period." Rowan said. James just gave her a sheepish grin and motioned Quinn to continue.

**Crash. That was the sound of worlds colliding. For a moment Phil was spinning in space with his feet on neither one.**

**Then with the normal world in shards around him, he leaned against a wall and whispered, "I can't. I can't do it. You're crazy."**

**"You're the one who's crazy. You're acting like it never happened. And you have to help, because I can't do it alone. She's going to be disoriented at first, like a sleepwalker. She'll need you."**

**That galvanized Phil. **("What's galvanized?") **He jerked to stand up straight and whispered, "Did you hear her last night?" James looked away. "She wasn't awake. She was just dreaming."**

**"How could we hear her from so far away? Even my dad heard it. Listen." He grabbed James by the lapel of his jacket. "Are you sure she's okay?"**

**"A minute ago you were convinced she was dead and gone. Now you want guarantees that she's fine.**

**Well, I can't give you any." He stared Phil down with eyes as cold as gray ice. "I've never done this before, all right? I'm just going by the book. And there are**

**always things that can go wrong, but," he said tersely when Phil opened his mouth, "the one thing I do know is that if we leave her where she is, she's going to have a very unpleasant awakening. Get it?"**

**Phil's hand unclenched slowly and he let go of the jacket. "Yeah. I'm sorry. I just can't believe any of this." He looked up to see that James's expression had softened slightly. "But if she was yelling last night, then she was alive then, right?"**

**"And strong," James said. "I've never known a stronger telepath. She's really going to be something."**

**Phil tried not to picture what. Of course, James was a vampire, and he looked perfectly normal most of the time. But Phil's mind kept throwing out pictures of Poppy as a Hollywood monster. Red eyes, chalky skin, and dripping teeth.**

Every vampire/lamia snorted at that stereotype.

**If she came out like that, he'd try to love her. But part of him might want to get a stake.**

**Forest Park cemetery was completely. different at night. The darkness seemed very thick. There was a sign on the iron gate that said, "No visitors after sunset," but the gate itself was open.**

**I don't want to be here, Phil thought.**

**James drove down the single lane road that curved around the cemetery and parked underneath a huge and ancient gingko tree.**

"Shouldn't you guys be hiding or something? What if somebody sees you. I'm pretty sure they have a guard." Maggie said worriedly.

Quinn gave her a crooked smile before reading the next line.

**"What if somebody sees us? Don't they have a guard or something?"**

Maggie blushed whiled Quinn gave her a teasing look. Rashel and Delos immediately felt…something.

**"They have a night watchman. He's asleep. I took care of it before I picked you up." James got out and began unloading an amazing amount of equipment from the backseat of the Integra.**

**Two heavy duty flashlights. A crowbar. Some old boards. A couple of tarps. And two brand-new shovels.**

**"Help me carry this stuff."**

**"What's it all for?" But Phil helped. Gravel crunched under his feet as he followed James on one of the little winding paths. They went up some weathered wooden stairs and down the other side and then they were in Toyland.**

**That was what somebody at the funeral had called it. Phil had overheard two business friends of Cliff's talking about it. It was a section of the cemetery where mostly kids were buried. You could tell without even looking at the headstones because there were teddy bears and things on the graves.**

**Poppy's grave was right on the edge of Toyland. It didn't have a headstone yet, of course. There was only a green plastic marker.**

"I don't know whether I should be offended at that." Poppy joked, but she guessed it wasn't funny because she got a handful of barely there chuckles.

**James dumped his armload on the grass and then knelt to examine the ground with a flashlight.**

**Phil stood silently, looking around the cemetery. He was still scared, partly with the normal fear that they'd get caught before they got finished, and partly with the supernatural fear that they wouldn't. The only sounds were crickets and distant traffic. Tree branches and bushes moved gently in the wind.**

**"Okay," James said. "First we've got to peel this sod off."**

**"Huh?" Phil hadn't even thought about why there was already grass on the new grave. But of course it was sod. James had found the edge of one strip and was rolling it up like a carpet.**

**Phil found another edge. The strips were about six feet long by one and a half feet wide. They were heavy, but it wasn't too hard to roll them up and off the foot of the grave.**

**"Leave 'em there. We've got to put them on again afterward," James grunted. "We don't want it to look as if this place has been disturbed."**

**A light went on for Phil." That's why the tarp sand stuff."**

**"Yeah. A little mess won't be suspicious. But if we leave dirt scattered everywhere, somebody's going to wonder." James laid the boards around the perimeter of the grave, then spread the tarps on either side. Phil helped him straighten them.**

**What was left where the sod had been was fresh, loamy soil. Phil positioned a flashlight and picked up a shovel.**

**I don't believe I'm doing this, he thought.**

_Neither can I. you've always been a stickler for rules Phil. _Poppy thought to herself.

**But he was doing it. And as long as all he thought about was the physical work, the job of digging a hole in the ground, he was okay. He concentrated on that and stepped on the shovel.**

**It went straight into the dirt, with no resistance. It was easy to spade up one shovelful of dirt and drop it onto the tarp. But by about the thirtieth shovelful, he was getting tired.**

**"This is insane. We need a backhoe," he said, wiping his forehead.**

**"You can rest if you want," James said coolly.**

**Phil understood. James was the backhoe. He was stronger than anyone Phil had ever seen. He pitched up shovelful after shovelful of dirt without even straining. He made it look like fun.**

**"Why don't we have you on any of the teams at school?" Phil said, leaning heavily on his shovel.**

"Probably so he doesn't attract any attention. Its not normal for a guy to be that strong" Mary-Lynnette said.

"Yeah well, I'm stronger." Ash blurted which shocked him. He hadn't mean to say it. It just slipped.

"Oookay. I'll just get back to the book now."

**"I prefer individual sports. Like wrestling," James said and grinned, just for a moment, up at Phil. **

The boys in the room all couldn't hide their grins as they looked at each other.

"Boys." The girls muttered.

**It was the kind of locker-room remark that couldn't be misunderstood from one guy to another. He meant wrestling with, for instance, Jacklyn and Michaela.**

Poppy made a face while the girls just looked disgustedly at the boys.

**And, just at that particular moment, Phil couldn't help grinning back. He couldn't summon up any righteous disapproval.**

**Even with James, it took a long time to dig the hole. It was wider than Phil would have thought necessary. When his shovel finally chunked on something solid, he found out why.**

"It's the vault" James said.

**"It's the vault," James said.**

Morgead was about to say something but was stopped by Jez.

"Yes Morgead, we know."

**"What vault?"**

**"The burial vault. They put the coffin inside it so it doesn't get crushed if the ground collapses. Get out and hand me the crowbar."**

**Phil climbed out of the hole and gave him the crowbar. He could see the vault now. It was made of unfinished concrete and he guessed that it was just a rectangular box with a lid. James was prying the lid off with the crowbar.**

**"There," James said, with an explosive grunt as he lifted the lid and slid it, by degrees, behind the concrete box. That was why the hole was so wide, to accommodate the lid on one side and James on the other.**

**And now, looking straight down into the hole, Phil could see the casket. A huge spray of slightly crushed yellow roses was on top.**

**James was breathing hard, but Phil didn't think it was with exertion. His own lungs felt as if they were being squeezed flat, and his heart was thudding hard enough to shake his body.**

**"Oh, God," he said quietly and with no particular emphasis.**

**James looked up. "Yeah. This is it." He pushed the roses down toward the foot of the casket. Then, in what seemed like slow motion to Phillip, he began unfastening latches on the casket's side.**

**When they were unfastened, he paused for just an instant, both hands flat on the smooth surface of the casket. Then he lifted the upper panel, and Phillip could see what was inside.**

"Done. Who's next?" Quinn asked the room when an unfamiliar voice spoke.

"Poppy?"

"_Phil?" _


End file.
